Never Too Late
by xBloomStarx
Summary: What if you were the only one who could sense that who you thought was too late to save calling out to you? And no one believed you? Third installment to Before the Dawn trilogy.
1. Prologue

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Weebeez to this series! This is it. The final installment to the trilogy and I start to get all teary-eyed and filled sadness whenever I think about how it's all coming to a close. But this is probably going to be one of my bigger projects, with new characters and even more surprising for me, a new POV -which will be figured out soon enough. Next thing I want to clear up, I have not given up on all my other stories, I'm just having super duper writer's block with them. Ideas are very welcome. In fact, ideas from the crowd would be awesome and would be greatly appreciated. But anywhoo, I need to stop babbling.

* * *

**Prolouge**

I looked down at my feet, a blank expression on my face. I don't know how I could stand looking at the shoes I wore. The Chuck Taylors that read "Daddy's Little Girl" on them held othing -not a single emotion.

"Alice," the police officer (I think his name was Jameson) said, leaning across the table to look at me. "You have to do this."

"Can't you just get her mom? I mean, she was there too." Liam replied for me, angrily.

"Boy, don't make me regret letting you come in here." Officer Jameson snapped. "Besides, we've already tried. After saying his name she had too big of a meltdown. We had to have someone come in and escort her out."

"And you think her daughter is going to be any different? They were _both_ there and had to watch him _die_! Do you really think there's not going to be a similar reaction?"

I grabbed Liam's hand, trying to see if he would get the message and shut up. Luckily he did.

The room was dead silent, not a single noise was made in the dark interrogation room in the police station. Except for the ticking of the clock but that doesn't technically count since they always make noise. I glanced up at the clock and saw that it was 7:24 a.m. My family and I had to leave for the transportation station in downtown Magix by 9 o'clock.

I slowly started to nod.

"Are you positive?" Liam asked quietly, squeezing my hand.

A nod.

Officer Jameson pushed a notebook and pen that lay on the table towards me.

"Okay then," the policeman said with a sigh of relief. "All you have to do is write it down."

A strange knot suddenly appeared in my stomach. Was I secretly having second thoughts? But then I realized why it was there. It meant that there was something important that I had to do.

I picked up the pen, opened the notebook and began to scribble down a total lie.

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_Y__eah~, so, that's that. And I'm sorta kinda almost done with the first chapter. So, we'll see where that takes us. Please review, like always. Byez~!_

_§SpArXsHiPpInG4EvEr§_

_~Bloom_


	2. Speak

**Chapter 1**

The end of the school day. I couldn't tell if I was happy about that or not. I had just suffered another seven hours of school, but now, at home, I would have to suffer the rest of my day hearing silence.

I sat on the front steps of my high school, Zathark Academy, and sighed. Why couldn't my life be normal?

"Hey," a small voice said, tapping my shoulder.

I looked behind me to see my sister, Isabelle, kneeling beside me. Her red-blonde hair was down from its usual pigtails and lay over her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked, flipping her side-bangs out of her eyes.

I nodded.

"You sure?"

A nod.

She reluctantly stood up. "I'll be at home, 'kay?"

I brought my knees up to my chest, not replying. I could tell that she was about to get back down but a bunch of her friends came by. She's lucky. She's good with making friends, unlike me of course.

"Issy, come on!" her friend, Beth-Ann, told her, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from me.

Silently, I watched Isabelle leave and once again I was alone. Other kids ran past me, eager to go home and I sat there wishing that I could be the same.

I heard someone sigh behind me, but I ignored it. Instead of looking to see who was there, I continued to stare out at the school's green courtyard, trying to fight back the tears. The person sat down next to me and pulled me into a hug. I buried my face into his shoulder and bit my lip -the force of holding back the tears quickly losing.

"You can let it out, you know?" Liam asked, running his fingers through my auburn hair.

I didn't respond.

"You have to talk sometime, Alice." he continued. "It's not normal to see you like this. You're usually talkative, bubbly, sometimes even down-right- annoying and now you're all depressed. I mean, I know it's for a good reason, but-."

I suddenly started crying. I just couldn't take it anymore. The one time my life was about to be complete and perfect, it shattered into tiny itty bitty billions of pieces. Yeah, that small.

Liam pulled me onto his lap and kissed the top of my head. He tried to calm me down some, but with no success.

Just to fill you in, I was forced to watch my father die exactly two weeks ago. He was murdered by his brother -sadly enough, my uncle (even though he's an armor-covered freak and I'm totally awesome and way prettier than he could ever be in his life) (A/N:Me/Bloom: Alice, get on with it! Alice: Okay! Gosh! Just stating the facts.). His brother, Supposed-"Lord" Darkar, caused him to have a collapsed lung (which I still don't know how that got there) and then drowned him, forcing me and my mother to watch. My nightmares are the only things that fill my head when I sleep. And scenes and sounds from the murder fill my vision when I merely close my eyes.

Liam stood me up and walked me away from the steps, away from the starting students. He led me to his black Dodge Charger and placed me in the passenger seat. The black leather that used to feel welcoming with its warmth, was now cold and unnerving.

I watched Liam enter on the drivers' side and take off onto the street. Both of us were silent; "Decode" from Paramore playing on the stereo.

"One word." Liam finally spoke when we reached a red-light. "Could you _please_ just say one word?"

I played with a hangnail and looked down at my jeans. I know if had only been two weeks since . . . the incident, but I don't know if I _could_ talk.

The light changed to green.

He sighed and resumed driving. We still didn't speak. I put my face in my hands and rested my elbows on my legs, trying to cover up my fearful expression.

I lost my dad -the person who raised me and my sister and beat himself up for turning Mom away. What was I supposed to do without him? I mean, yeah, I still have Mom there but she's too disoriented right now to figure out what room she's even in. And Isabelle won't show how much she's suffering -which is probably about as much as I am. But she's handling it way better than I am. I basically lost the ability to speak.

About five minutes later I looked up to see Liam park his car in my driveway. The house that we had back in Magix wasn't there. It was the one that we had on -you guessed it- Earth. It was still about as big as our old one, but . . . it just wasn't the same. Home didn't seem welcoming anymore. Especially since Aunt Stella's pink Lexus was parked in front of us.

"Alice," Liam said, leaning over and turning me to face him. He wiped away a few stray tears with his thumb. "Alice, please, I'm begging you, just one measly little sentence. Anything."

I took a deep breath, trying to stop myself from crying again. Truthfully, I hadn't even attempted to talk.

"If I were you though, I would speak because I'm pretty sure Aubrey will make you."

Just the sound of my one out of three friends made me cringe. She was probably one of the creepiest people I know. And she wasn't a goth or anything like that. She was just . . . Aubrey**(1)**.

"And you know it!" a voice yelled from the backseat. A girl popped up from the back and I jumped in surprise. "Dang it!" Aubrey exclaimed, pushing her black bangs out of her hazel eyes. "Not even an effing scream!"

"I told you it wouldn't work." Liam replied, shrugging. "But by the way, have I told you lately how shocked I am that you're Flora and Helia's daughter?"

She nodded. "Yerp."

I slightly shook my head. I turned my head so that I was looking out the passenger side window, at the house. All the windows were dark.

Aubrey grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth violently. "Speak woman!" she yelled evilly.

I shoved her hands away and slumped down in my seat, crossing my arms.

"You know, you're going to suffocate and die because you aren't using your throat. Your throat's gonna close up and all the oxygen will be cut of from your lungs and you're gonna turn purple and ... and freaking die!" Aubrey exaggerated.

I shook my head.

"Yes, you will. Now speak!"

I just continued to sit there, staring out the window at my house.

"Aubrey, just let her be." Liam told her, taking one deep breath.

Aubrey lounged back in her seat. "Whatever, dude."

"Come on," he said, taking my hand in his, "I'll take you inside."

"Hey, don't leave me here." Aubrey proclaimed, not even moving.

"I'll be back, you stalker."

"I am_ not_ a stalker!"

"Sure."

"You're not nice."

"Not my problem."

Liam opened the car door and stepped out. I reluctantly followed, closing the door behind me. He led me to the front door and through the wood all I could hear was silence -which surprised the heck out of me since Stella (the loudest person ever) was here.

He gripped the handle and began to turn it, but I grabbed his wrist at the last possible second. I shook my head when he lifted his head to look at me strangely.

"Alice, your mom is too busy with ... the thing than finding out about us." he assured, delicately running his fingers through my side-bangs.

I liked when he stroked my hair. It gave me a calming feeling for some reason.

If you all hadn't guessed though, Liam was my totally beast boyfriend. He was actually one of the most understanding guys I had ever met.

"So, are you going to stop me again, or are you going to let me come in?" he said, looking at me with his blue eyes through his shaggy brown hair.

Hesitating slightly, I let go of his wrist.

"Okay." He squeezed my hand and kissed my forehead.

Liam opened the door and we walked inside what was the living room. The bright color and grand staircase that was exactly a replica of our old ones, didn't seem to have its previous luster and brilliance.

". . . Whoa." he whispered, gazing around in awe. "Your house is _huge_." Liam had never stepped foot in my house before. Neither had Aubrey or my other friend Dmitri**(2)**.

"So, do you want me to take you to your room -wherever that may be int this huge place?"

I shook my head again.

He sighed. "Okay. I guess I'll go then." He gave me a short -but passionate- kiss and turned to leave.

Except, I didn't release my grasp on his wrist. When he finally noticed, he stopped and pivoted towards me.

Tears filled my eyes again, and my bottom lip quivered. But then, one of the most unexpected things of all happened.

"Liam, don't go." I whispered in a scratchy tone, my voice cracking slightly.

It felt strange to hear my own voice again. I almost didn't recognize it through all the new scratchy roughness it had developed from not speaking. But behind all of that, the realization of whose voice it reminded me of made me slightly shudder.

Liam just stared at me blankly as if he were frozen. His expression was like a statue's.

I was about to ask if he was okay, but he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me against him.

"You don't know how long I've waited for you to say something." he finally said, burying his face in my hair. "Even if you do sound a little like your mom when you said it."

I let out a small laugh and breathed in Liam's familiar scent. I wasn't real good with identifying smells, but I could always tell if it was Liam's.

"Alice, is that you?" a peppy voice chirped from up the stairs.

We jumped apart from each other and I saw Aunt Stella walking down the staircase. She was still wearing skirts and dresses but this time, she was actually dressing down. Wait . . . never mind. It has Spella McCartney on the side. I was wrong.

"Hey, you're home early for once." she said, playing with her ponytail. "And you brought a friend." She smiled at Liam and then yanked him into a hug. "Thank you!" she exclaimed. "I'm happy to know that this silent little Bloom clone actually has a friend."

She pushed him back slightly and her jaw dropped in shock. "Oh nuh-uh." she mumbled, looking at his face.

Pretending to still not be able to speak, I stared at her curiously.

"Alice, do you know who this is?" Stella asked me.

I shook my head slowly.

"This is the new prince of Eraklyon."

I reached up and scratched the back of my neck guiltily. Yeah, he was the son of my mom's ex-boyfriend, but who cares? He's hot.

Liam was sort of speechless. "Uhm, what's Eraklyon?"

Stella smacked his shoulder. "Don't play games with me boy. I'm the queen of Solaria, I'm pretty sure I know about the Magical Dimension and all who's in it."

"Stella." a weak voice interrupted Liam when he was about to respond.

Not a single sound was made. It was a voice that I knew all too well. We all looked up at the top of the stairs again, and my eyes widened slightly. There was a person standing there, that I never thought that I would ever seen again.

Her hair was tangled, and her eyes were red and somewhat swollen from crying. She wore a gray tank top and a pair of plaid flannel pajama pants. Not a single ounce of make-up was on her pale face.

My own mother.

* * *

_Well. I finally got this chapter done. I feel accomplished. I wrote this all within five hours, so I'm tired. Like, _really_ tired. But, I'm going to try to update a Royalshipping (or BloomxSky) story sometime since I've been mainly updating Sparxshipping stories. Plus, I've found this new addiction called and it's really addicting. You can find me on that website too thanks to my friend xBlueFootx who made me an account without telling me until _after _she made it. Also . . . I don't know. So, just, yeah. . . .review please. _

_§SpArXsHiPpInG4EvEr§  
Bloom_

**(1)-** This is a character that my friend Blue (xBlueFootx) created and I put it in here for her.  
**(2)-** This is a character that my friend Ember (emberfire411) let me use because I wanted Alice to have at least SOME friends.


	3. Born This Way

**Chapter 2- Born This Way**

I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing I mean, I couldn't really be seeing Mom standing there, could I? To make sure, I stole a glance at Stella. A worried expression adorned her face, and she was slowly shaking her head.

Mom slowly descended the staircase with her eyes locked on the ground. She seemed like a zombie almost, non-coherent to her surroundings. Her tangled hair lay flat on her head and when she stepped off the flight of stairs, she didn't look any better. Almost worse.

But when I looked into Mom's eyes, one thing struck me. They weren't blue. Well, physically, yes, but they weren't . . . blue. The laughter that was there before everything fell apart was gone. And to me, when I saw her face-to-face, it was like looking into a soulless mirror.

"Mommy," I whispered, holding out my arms, like a child, for a hug.

She bit her lip and pulled me into her arms. I choked on tears and closed my eyes, trying to stall the water works.

"I'm not going to let you down Mom. I'm going to protect you, Isabelle, and this baby, no matter what. I promise I will." I pledged, taking a shaky breath.

There was a shift in the wind when I heard Mom let out a choke sob (A/N: There's that work I hate again.). Something felt off. Something was definitely wrong.

Mom held me at arms length and stroked my hair. "Honey, we need to talk."

"What? What is it?" I asked, my hands shaking.

"There . . ." she sighed, "there is no baby."

Everything was silent. No one moved. It was as if the earth literally had stood still.

When I finally remembered how to speak, I had to ask, "What do you mean there's no baby?"

"It was a fluke." she replied, running a quivering hand through her tangled hair.

"Bloom, don't you _dare_ lie to your own daughter." Stella scolded, crossing her arms angrily. "She has the right to know."

"What happened?" I shouted in frustration, on the verge of tears.

Mom let out a short tearful breath. "Whenever we saw . . . the accident, I freaked out too much. It was too early -earlier than premature almost."

My mind went blank. Everywhere was an icy tundra engulfing my body. My eyes were frozen open to where I couldn't even blink.

"You mean . . ." I trailed off, not wanting to say it. I felt Liam place a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it.

She nodded slowly. "He's gone. We lost him."

I swallowed hard. "He? It was a he?"

Again, Mom nodded. "You would've had a baby brother."

My heart sank down far past my knees. It was falling in an endless blackhole, never slowing; never stopping.

"Alice," Liam whispered, brushing his fingers through my hair delicately.

I shook my head, shrugging him away. I didn't want him to comfort me. I didn't want anyones' sympathy.

I turned around and bolted out the door, not looking back. I saw Aubrey looking at me from inside Liam's car, but it didn't phase me. Nothing would.

I ran down the sidewalk and out of the neighborhood until I reached town. It was close to six o'clock and I was still getting used to the time difference between Magix and Earth -which was about four hours. (It was a miracle that Aunt Flora and Uncle Helia even let Aubrey out of the house this late with their over-protectiveness.)

I slowed down to a walking pace as I entered the depths of the city. The speeding cars, cussing pedestrians, and cop sirens seemed to calm me down. I'm starting to scare myself. Looking around at the busy streets, I attempted to slow down my heart rate -which wasn't much of a successful task until I gazed down the street.

I knew what my newly discovered destination was as I saw the brightly lit neon sign. Nearing the building, the words became clearer and I read the words: "Pete's Bar & Pool Hall". I smirked in relief and felt inside my pocket. My evil grin widened as I felt the rectangular shape of my fake ID. Even though I was always prepared, I always checked to make sure my precious card didn't accidentally fall out of my pocket somewhere.

Walking inside the bar, I inspected the lodging. Muscled men that were drinking beer and whiskey, playing pool, fighting, violating the waitresses, then shattered glass covering the once smooth ground in the dimly lit drinking pub. Bar, sweet bar.

I strutted past the drunken folks and sat down on one of the wooden bar stools at the bar. There was only one other man sitting there next to me, but I didn't bother to acknowledge him.

"Yo, bartender, give me something strong. I need it." I ordered, drumming my fingers on the counter top.

The bartender scratched his scruffy beard and tossed a towel over his shoulder (A/N: I have no idea what they call that thing that they always sling over their shoulder, but it's made me curious.) "Aren't you a little young to drink?" he asked.

"Well aren't you a little old to be secretly sneaking around in beds?" I snapped back. I leaned in closer to his dirty face. "With your new step-mother." I added.

Almost immediately he drew out a shot glass and a bottle of Jim Beam (A/n: My dad works at one of the plants, so I'm sorta basically advertising. Bad Bloom, bad.) He held out his hand, "ID."

I rolled my eyes and pulled out my "ID." I put it in his hand and he looked it over.

"You don't look like an Aubrey or like your 26. But nice attempt," he said, handing it back.

"Well you don't look like a Pete." I answered, nodding towards his name tag. "You look more like a Ronnie to me. I'm going to call you Ronnie from now on instead of Pete."

Ronnie rolled his eyes and walked further down the bar, clearly wanting away from me.

"Nice work."

I turned towards the man sitting beside me and raised an eyebrow.

"Never seen a bartender leave his post so quickly," the man smirked from underneath his ball cap, not looking at me.

"Why thank ye." I replied with a smirk of my own. "It's my specialty to annoy people." I took a swig of the whiskey and averted my gaze to the wall of alcohol in front of me. The burn of the liquid was assuring that I was still sober which needed to change and fast.

"I can tell." he chuckled, running a hand through his long red-blonde ponytail. "Beware though, one day it could get you into deep trouble." He sighed before taking a drink. "I learned that the hard way."

I let out a quiet laugh. For some reason, this guy reminded me of Dad. It was somehow calming but also depressing. The heavy cloud of gray fell over me and I stared down at the counter top.

"But, if I may ask, where did you find that information out about him?" he asked, taking another drink.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just guessed." I lied with a small smile. There was no way in hell I could've guessed that, so I had just read his aura -one of my many magical talents. "I didn't think I would actually be right."

"Wow," the man said, laughing. "You're one horrible liar. I know that you read him. I could feel your magic snooping through his aura."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You know about magic?" I asked him, running my finger around the rim of my glass.

"Of course I do. Almost everyone does. When was the last time you've been to Earth, my dear?"

"First time actually."

"Exactly my point. By the looks you're about sixteen, so you were probably taught how clueless the citizens of this boring planet about the Magical Dimension. News flash, they've known about it for the past few years."

I stared blankly at the man, trying to process all of the information. Did they really already know about our secret civilization?

The man suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm just pulling your butt. They still don't know. I just haven't been able to do that in a while."

I furrowed my brow. "Hah, you're funny. Not. But with your dumbass sense of humor, I think we could become great friends. Even if you are way older than me."

I turned in my stool towards him and stuck my hand out. "I'm -" I began to say.

"You're 'Alice Everette' the 'founder' of 'My Foot Up Your Ass Incorporations'. You have one terrible set of fake names. Even if Alice is your real name I know for a fact that the rest isn't true."

"How?"

He turned towards me and put his hand in my still outstretched one. "Last name's Chevere**(1)**. But I'm sure you know me differently." With his other hand he tore unleashed his ponytail and took his baseball cap off and set it on the bar. My eyes widened as his familiar eyes made my jaw drop. "Hi, I'm Baltor."

Of all the people I could of been as, why was I born this way?

* * *

_Yay! I'm not dead! You all I am so sorry for barely updating. I've been having major writer's block. But don't worry, I plan to update more and more. Especially like on the ones I haven't updated in almost more than a year (i.e. Wizards Remix, End of All Hope, The End, all that good stuff.). And, I hope you all like this chapter. I've been dying to finish it, so I'm glad that I finally got to. Please review, and I'll see y'all later!_

_~Bloom_

_§ "Mwahaha, I just crapped in the Lego bin!" Destery from IDEK Things That Piss You Off_

**(1)**- _In the first book their last name was Kingsley, but I don't like it anymore, so I'm gonna change it._


	4. You're Not Alone

**Chapter 3- You're Not Alone**

I was absolutely speechless as I stared in my father's eyes. He didn't even seem fazed by my shock.

". . . Dad?" I managed to choke out.

"Why are you here?" he asked coldly. Play time was officially over.

I crossed my arms and shot him a look. "I could ask you the exact same question. Especially since you're-."

"Why aren't you at home? I've been worried sick! And where's Isabelle? Do you usually come here to drink at a _bar_ every night? Alice you are freaking underage! I _know_ that you know that damn well!" Dad exploded, throwing questions left and right.

"Maybe if you'd chillax for a couple of seconds, I'd explain myself!" I shot back, frustrated.

With steam coming out of his ears, he slowly calmed himself down. His face only slightly red opposed to the blood-red shade he had acquired by yelling at me. "Then explain yourself, young lady. _Now._" he growled, completely pissed off.

"You're supposed to be dead!" I blurted out, not sure what else to say.

He stared at me blankly. "What are you talking about?" He leaned in close to my face. "Breathe. I want to check how much you've had to drink exactly."

"Dad, this shotglass I have here is all that I've had all fricking day." I reached over the counter and pulled out the bottle of Beam. "And, if you don't mind me asking, why aren't you dead?"

"Why would I be dead, Alice? Yes, I've been gone for a couple of weeks/days, but you know why."

I shook my head. "Um, no I don't. Mom's been tore up since you've been dead. And I know you died, I watched it with my own damn eyes."

Dad slammed his glass down and it instantly shattered, surprisingly not leaving a single cut.

"Do _not_ bring up anything about your mother, Alice. You should know better than that."

I stared at him, completely confused while he secretly conjured up a new glass.

"Could you possibly elaborate on why I'm not allowed to?" I asked, quietly.

Dad looked at me with an unidentifiable expression. "You really don't know what happened, do you?"

I slowly shook my head.

He sighed and I saw the tears he was fighting back. "Darkar . . ." he started, putting his face in his hands, "Darkar . . . murdered her."

My blood ran cold. I felt five times my normal weight as my mind raced wildly.

"Hold up a second," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. "So, I'm saying that _you're_ dead, and you're saying that _Mom's_ dead."

"What relevance does any of that have, Alice?" Dad asked, pain clearly written in his voice. "Bloom is gone, how hard is that to comprehend?"

"Dad . . . Mom's alice. I have no idea when Darkar supposedly "murdered" her, but I think it's _you_ who's had too much to drink."

Dad put his hands on my shoulders and gazed deep into my eyes. "Alice, I'm going to make this fairly clear for you. Your mother is _dead_." His gold eyes were steely, hard. "End of discussion."

I rolled my eyes. "You are seriously stubborn."

"As if you're one to talk." he said with a chuckle. "You're just as hard-headed as Bloom was."

"As she _is_." I corrected. "I can prove it Dad. You have to believe me."

Dad sighed and stood up. "Come on Alice. Let's go home. You must've hit your head on something.

"I didn't hit my head!" I shouted, nearly in tears.

"Alice!" he yelled, slamming his fist on the countertop. His glass tipped over and its contents spilled out onto the slick wood.

"Dad!" I mocked, picking up his glass. I was about to say something snippy when someone suddenly whispered in my ear softly.

"_Drink it_," I heard it murmur. I glanced over my shoulder to see absolutely no one there. "_Drink from the glass, Alice_."

I recognized the voice automatically after it said my name. It was . . . my dad.

Looking from my Dad that was in front of me and to the glass in my hand repeatedly, I exhaled. I sloshed the remaining alcohol around in the cup before drinking it. But when I tasted it, I froze up immediately. I slowly placed the drink back on the bar and stared at Dad's now-empty barstool.

"What's wrong now?" Dad asked, annoyed.

"You only like Miller." (A/N: Happy now, Ember? There's your little advertisement.)

Dad sent me a confused slash odd look. ". . . What?"

"This is Bud Lite. I know for a fact that you despise Bud Lite. The only beer that you do like is Miller. It's the only one you kept in the fridge. And yes, I _do_ know that."

Anger was rising in his face. But as soon as it came, it disappeared.

"Alice, let's go. Now."

"Hell no! You're an imposter! For all I know, you could be some sort of psycho rapist." I protested.

He grabbed me by the arm and began tugging me towards the exit (which was basically the entrance as well, but . . . oh well.). I jerked my arm out of his grasp, and punched the imposter in the jaw.

What I wasn't expecting though, was his jaw to fall off onto the ground. I felt as if I were going to be sick and as I watched -in horror- it detach from the rest of his face. But, instead of blood -which I was totally expecting- I saw dark red . . . armor.

The air froze around me as I realized who was imposing my father.

He lunged at me again and I swiftly ducked before reaching up at the broken skin on his face. I wrapped my fingers around the dangling skin on his cheeks and yanked the rest of his "face" off. Throwing the mask onto the ground, I looked into the face of the only man evil enough to imitate my dad.

Lord Darkar, himself.

"Darkar, you little frickin' son of a-," I began to yell.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see, others may also get hurt by your words." Darkar said, his voice back to his own and an evil smirk adorning his metal face.

"You just basically restated what you used to say to my mom, idiot. I'm not stupid."

"And look who all got hurt."

I growled under my breath and had to resist the urge to create a Dragon Arrow and pierce it through my uncle's head. But as my fists quivered with anger, I knew I couldn't since we were in a public place -even if the bar-goers were all drunk and didn't notice that we were even brawling. You gotta love the drunks.

"Would you like to take this outside?" Darkar asked me, motioning towards the entry doors.

"Uhm, no." I replied, wringing my wrists. "I'm not leaving this place with you."

"We're not leaving. We're just stepping out so that I can tear you to shreds."

I nodded slowly. "Lovely. Let's do this then. But you go first. I wanna make sure that I actually get a fair start and you don't hit me in the back."

"Of course, Princess." he said, walking in front of me, and out the entrance.

Reluctantly, I followed him sending out a mental signal that I was in danger with my magic to anyone close enough to actually be able to hear it. I didn't get a single response except the voice that sounded like Dad's that told me to keep walking.

Stepping out of the bar, I noticed that the darkness of night covered the sky, coating everything underneath it in shadows. But I knew better than that, since Darkar was nowhere in sight. I transformed into my fairy form which basically consisted of a short sleeveless light purple dress with diamonds, my hair pinned up into a low slightly messy chignon with a small dainty tiara, silver gladiator heels, and intricately designed blue and purple wings**(1)**. Yes, I had just received my powers a few weeks ago (or is it days . . . I can't remember anymore), but since I inherited my mom's powers and she had reached her Enchantix, that was the immediate transformation that I started with. So, basically, I cheated.

Standing my ground I looked around to try to find where Darkar had run off to since he was nowhere in sight. Only breathing through my nose, I scanned my eyes across the dark shadows, preparing to create a Dragon Energy attack when needed.

A soft wooshing sound came from behind me and I spun around, frightened. An arrow of dark Shadow Fire struck my front, throwing me down the sidewalk. I collided with the rough pavement with scrapes and soon-to-become bruises spotting my arms and legs. I hissed in pain and cursed aloud.

"Tired, Princess?" Darkar asked, jummping down from the roof of the bar. "I can let tyou sleep, if you wish."

"Over my dead body!" I shouted, shooting a Dragon Arrow at my so-called uncle.

He skillfully caught it and twirled it around in his hand. "That can be arranged if necessary." he growled, doubling the size of the attack I had sent him.

"And if it doesn't?" I inquired, standing up slowly.

"Then I'll make it necessary."

Before I could reply he shot my own attack back at me, but I easily dodge it, tumbling down to the ground again.

From my position on the ground, I did a backflip to land on my feet once more. Shooting an evil glare at him, I jumped and fluttered high up in the night sky. With a grunt, I tossed a Dragon Fury at him, hoping to knock him down. Unluckily, it didn't.

Darkar mereely reflected it and sent it back at me. Apparently, luck wanted to be on his side today.

Knocking me down once again, I felt my cheek skid against the cement. When gravity finally decided to slow me down, I bit my lip from the stinging pain and struggled to get up onto my hands and knees. I moaned in agony as I tasted the metallic taste of blood enter my mouth.

Darkar's armor-covered hand suddenly latched onto my ankle and began to drag me down the sidewalk.

I screamed and clawed at the sidewalk as he took me into the alley next to the bar. The sad thing is that I knew that no one would hear me as Darkar killed me.

In the alley, Darkar threw me on the brick wall and I yelped. I collapsed onto the ground and let out a small yell as I felt a part of my wing tear while I fell to the dirty gravel covered ground.

Paralyzed in pain, I couldn't do anything when I felt Darkar pull an immense amount of energy out of the air for the final blow. The final blow which would lead to my ultimate end.

"I relish this day in which I destroy my only, putrid niece." Darkar spoke, about to release his attack.

I closed my eyes, ready for the end. I wasn't for sure if I was ready for death exactly, but I was prepared for his Shadow Fire blow.

"Your only niece? Well I see how noticed _I_ am!"

The building energy Darkar had created disappeared and my eyes shot open. Looking at where the voice had originated from, I felt a shot of hope surge through me. Isabelle, Liam and Aubrey all stood there ready to go into the fight.

Surprisingly, Isabelle had earned her Enchantix as well. We didn't know when, but apparently she had. Her Enchantix consisted of a pink halter dress with purplish-pink rings adorning the body of the outfit and gold gladiator high heels. Her long red-blonde hair was done up in a curly, low bun and her wings were pink -she's so girlie. **(2)**

"Am I always this invisible?" Isabelle asked, sighing.

"Yes. Yes, you are." Aubrey replied, slightly nodding.

"You're a bitch, Aubrey."

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Your rescue team slash posse seem to be simply idiotic. This should be an easy victory."

Liam drew his light-sword out of its holder and pressed the button on the handle, shooting out the blade -which happened to be black, which I found pretty sexy _but_ that's not the point right now.

Darkar shot a ball of shadows at the trio and they ducked. The attack missed them by mere inches.

"Move and I'll kill you instantly." the -ahem- "Shadow Lord" (emphasis on the air quotes) threatened before walking off to battle my friends.

Aubrey shouted obscenities at Darkar for the unexpected attack and conjured up a giant boulder, firing it at his head (of all places...). He reflected it, but Aubrey reflected it as well, catching him off guard. He was knocked to the ground, grunting in pain.

Oh, and Aubrey isn't exactly a fairy. She's what we like to call a ... mutant. Yeah, it's strange. And, yes, she is Flora and Helia's daughter, but something went all screw-bally when Aubrey was born, and instead of fairy wings she had bird-like wings. Feathers and all. They're very big as well, so it's puzzling at how she hides them. And when I got a good look at Aubrey, I saw behind her black jacket was indeed her wings. **(3)**

"I may be idiotic, but I _am_ pretty smart." the mutant commented, flicking flecks of dirt off of her feathery wings.

"That made _no_ sense whatsoever." Isabelle remarked, shaking her head in disappointment.

"It's Aubrey Talk, it'll never make sense as long as I live."

"Well that should be a short time. Especially since Darkar's behind you."

"Huh? What?" Aubrey inquired, turning around.

A dark energy wave sent the "mutant" -apparently- flying down the sidewalk.

I tried to get up but it was a lost cause. I was too weak and so were my powers. I cursed under my breath for not taking the time to control my newly acquired powers. I wondered how Mom had _ever_ had the patience to break them in.

A pair of strong arms looped around my thin waist and delicately pulled me up onto my feet.

"You okay?" a man's voice asked me as he slowly let go of my waist.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the familiar head of shaggy brown hair.

"Liam!" I exclaimed quietly (for once), throwing my arms around his neck -even though I was in major amounts of pain. "Ohmigosh, how did you find me?"

"Isabelle heard your help signal and we came as quick as we could." he explained brushing a loose piece of my hair out of my eyes. "But are _you_ okay? Are you hurt badly?" he continued, checking me over to see if there were any injuries.

I laughed and lightly touched my wet lip. Bringing it back for examination, I saw shining blood adorning my pale finger. Looking down to see along with Liam, the sight of bruises (that were presently forming) and long scratches running up and down my arms and legs. "I've surprisingly had worse." I answered, wringing the hem of the small dress.

"I wouldn't doubt that. Now come on I'm getting you out of here." he said, grabbing my hand.

"What? Now way! What about Aubrey and Isabelle? We can't just leave them here." I protested.

"It's okay. It's all part of the plan. They're distracting him while we leave. They'll be back soon, I promise."

I bit my lip nervously.

"There's a portal at the back of the bar, they'll use it like we will. Trust me, Alice." Liam prodded.

I sighed. "Fine; okay. Let's go."

"Okay, follow me. We need to get away from here fast so that Darkar doesn't notice."

He led me out of the alley and quietly walked into the bar again. To my utter surprise, the place was empty. Not even Ronnie was there. Aw . . . I miss Ronnie.

"Oh no," Liam whispered scanning the area frantically.

"What? Why "oh no"?" I asked, panicked.

"It's the wrong bar. Isabelle screwed up the name again. Damn it."

I played with the glittery glove on my on my left hand. "I could create a portal."

"No way. Your powers are at a low pit. We'd be lucky if you could even create a peuny little sparkle."

And that's when it officially kicked in. I was immediately determined to prove Liam wrong. I would make a portal. I'd even make one right now -five if I have to.

Focusing all of my power into the blank space in front of me, I attempted to create a portal. A loud, sharp wind filled my ears and swept past me, and I fought to stand on my feet.

All of a sudden, the wind stopped and my poised self nearly fell over in the process. Luckily, Liam caught me and I looked to see his distracted, shocked expression.

"Told you I could do it." I told him proudly, smiling brilliantly. Sure, I felt completely wiped out, but I didn't want to let Liam rub it in. That's a definite no-no.

In front of us was in fact a large fiery portal, ready to be used. That I had created. Thumbs up to my 'rents for my awesome stubborn genes that I inherited. Yeah!

"Where does it go?" he asked, curiously.

I shook my head, still grinning like an idiot. "I have no idea. But let's go. I don't want to end up as Shadow Tuna. Mostly because that crap tastes _nasty_."

"That's my Alice," Liam chuckled, leading me into the portal.

I closed my eyes as a wave of hot energy washed over me as I stepped through, but the feeling disappeared as soon as it came.

"Um, Alice," Liam said, sighing.

"What?" I asked.

"Recognize this place any?"

I opened my eyes to see a beautifully intricate courtyard with a large palace behind it. Taking a step forward, I brushed my fingers delicately against the short stone walls that lined the red rose bushes.

"No, should I?" I replied, looking up at the bright sun (I estimated immediately then that we had to be somewhere in the Magical Dimension which I had never been able to explore before.) while imagining what my life would be like living in a palace like the one before us.

"Yes, you should." Liam answered, coming up to stand beside me.

I gazed up at the dark blue tinted windows that stood out against the ivory-colored palace and surprisingly I was excited to see that I could actually see inside them still. Changing my gaze to each window, my smile changed to a blank expression as I landed my eyes on the large window above the main entrance. Inside, I could see a tall, blonde man wearing royal clothing staring out of it down at me and Liam.

"We're on Eraklyon." my boyfriend spoke, looking up in the same direction I was.

* * *

Okay, yeah probably about all of you all are pissed at me right now because Baltor isn't really back, but oh well. And I wasn't planning on posting this chapter today, but since it's my _**birthday**_ I decided to. YAY! :D I'm turning **_14_** -big number- so I'm really excited about that. Moving on though, the outfit links that are in the story will be posted sometime, but I'm not sure when. If you want, for those of you who actually care, I'll go and tell you all if you want if you tell me to in a PM or review. And yes, the title of the chapter is called "You're Not Alone" and no, it's not the Michael Jackson version, it's the Final Fantasy version by katethegreat19 on YouTube. Anyway, lastly, please review and I'll hopefully see you all later! Bye!

~Bloom

_§ "Mwahaha, I just crapped in the Lego bin!" Destery from IDEK Things That Piss You Off_

_(1)- Links will be posted soon.  
(2)- Links will be posted soon.  
(3)- Yeah, this is based off of the mutants on Maximum Ride. But, Blue, the one who created Aubrey, wanted her to be like one of them. Don't burn me for it. If you do I will come hunt you down. Not really but that just sounds really stalkerish and stalkers are creepy._


	5. The Only Exception

**Chapter 4- The Only Exception**

"Oh hot damn!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly, detransforming into a normal outfit. "I get to meet your 'rentals! This is so awesome! I can't wait to talk to them and let them bask in my amazing originality! Lets go!" I shouted, taking his hand and pulling him towards the doors.

"Alice, no!" he whispered through his teeth. He grabbed my upper arm with his free hand and tugged me back.

"What?" I asked, somewhat disappointed by his reluctance. "Is it my clothes?" I motioned to my dark red tank top which read: "Earth -23 inches in diameter. AWESOME." (from DesandNate of course) and my severely ripped skinny jeans, dirty half-laced Converse, unruly jewellery (very unruly if I may add), and my tangled hair that was in a ponytail.

"No, it's not your clothes, babe." he sighed. "It's my parents -my dad in particular. He's not exactly the biggest fan of your family."

I shrugged carelessly. "So? I wanna meet them. You've partially met my psychotic family, so why can't I meet yours?"

"I just told you why! Plus, my dad would totally freak out if he saw you here."

I froze up. "You haven't told your 'rents about us?"

"Well, you haven't."

"But I was actually planning on it!"

"Alice can we just not fight about this now. We need to get out of the open space."

"No, I wanna stay here."

"Alice, come on, please?"

"_No_."

"Please don't make this difficult."

"Too late."

A hand suddenly grabbed the back of my tank top and jerked me backwards. Looking up at the dark, looming shadow above me, I saw a thickly bearded Eraklyon guard there with a not-so-happy expression.

"Um, hiya!" I greeted with a small wave.

"Can I help you, young miss?" he replied in an accented voice. By my guess it was probably an Irish accent. ...Beast.

"Uh, yes actually. I was wondering if there was any secret passageways here to get inside the castle. It's urgent. The longer it takes me, the less money my boss pays me." I lied. A plan skillfully built itself up in my head as I spoke.

"A spy?" he growled, evilly.

I glanced over at Liam and he shot me a look. I merely smiled at him.

"No." I answered in a guilty-like tone. It was a good thing that I was an amazing actress.

Liam looked at me as if I were nuts. His facial expression just screamed, "Are you trying to get yourself killed!".

The guard twisted my arms behind my back and began to lead me inside the palace. "Come on, spy. I'll let the king deal with you."

I smirked evilly. _Success_, I thought to myself.

I pretended to seem terrified as the guard, who I had secretly named Geraldo, took me down countless corridors and through winding stairwells. Glancing at my surroundings, I marvelled at the blue and gold tapestries, rugs, and even furniture as we passed. But what truly caught my eyes were the huge double doors that were painted in solid gold when Geraldo had stopped me.

"The king and "queen" -as she calls herself- will be waiting to decide your fate. I wouldn't attempt an escape either." Geraldo said, beginning to walk away.

"Wasn't planning on it." I mumbled, waiting for him to finally disappear.

When he did, I did the only thing a girl in my situation would do. Yes, fellow readers, I started to do a happy dance.

"Get some, Liam! Look at me now!" I shouted behind me, even though no one was there. I did the infamous Nathan (from DesandNate again -10 Things You've Never Heard Before Bloopers video to be exact-)"Yee-ha!" before smacking my butt towards where I had yelled before. "In your frickin' face, boy! Whoo!"

Changing my hair color to a more demeaning dark brown-on-the-verge-of-black hue, I pushed the doors open excitedly and walked into the red and gold throne room, grinning with pride. I had proved Liam wrong. I was going to meet his parents whether he liked it or nto. I always got my way. _Always_.

Halting in front of the thrones, I bowed before the royals. "Your Graces," I said, trying not to show my true self.

"Remove your silly grin, spy. You have not a reason to be smiling." the blonde-haired royal snapped, sneering down at me.

I immediately dropped my smirk. "Of course, my Queen." I replied, standing back up straight.

"How dare you mock the King of Eraklyon!" the same majesty shouted, slamming his fist down on his arm rest.

The mistake I made clicked in my head. "Oops! My bad! I'm terribly sorry. The long hair caught me off-guard." I apologized, putting two fingers over my lips, nervously.

"Why are you here, spy? Who sent you here?" the actual queen asked, twirling a piece of her too-curly, bleach blonde hair.

"I could ask you the same thing Miss De-ass-pro." I snipped, crossing my arms defiantly.

She sent daggers are me. "My name is Diaspro, you peasant."

"If it's not De-ass-pro, then why do you keep pronouncing it that way?"

Her face turned red in fury. Almost as red as her dress, which I must say was pretty cute even with all of the ruffles on it.

"State your business and your master." she hissed through clenched teeth.

"I am my own master, thank you very much. The only exception would possibly be my mother but she's in too much of a distressed state to actually order me around."

She squinted her eyes at me. "Who told you to come here, spy?"

"Excuse me, but this spy has a name and I expect you imbeciles to use it properly. Also, I'm not a spy. I changed my mind, I wanna be an assassin now."

"This isn't a game, you fool of a girl. Now answer the question or suffer harsh consequences."

I looked over at the king and tilted my head to the side slightly. "Does she always do all the talking for you?"

"Enough!" Diaspro yelled. "Guards, remove her from our sight. Take her to the dungeons."

Guards suddenly surrounded me on all sides and fear rose up in my chest. It was then that I realized how deep I had put myself in this situation. I was gonna get my ass thrown in jail and ruin my family's life even more. I tensed up and waited for them to attack, worrying about what would happen next.

_Attack them_, the same voice from the bar spoke in my head.

"Dad..." I whispered under my breath as the guards slowly came forward to catch me. "I'll blow my cover."

_Attack them, _Dad's voice repeated. I exhaled, debating on whether I should listen to it or not.

I smirked and untensed myself, listening to the odd voice. "Bring it on." I said to the guards before releasing a curtain of fire at them. They were sent flying across the throne room and crashed into the walls with a loud _THUD_.

Knowing what I had just done, I ran my hands through my newly uncovered fiery auburn hair. "Now that that's over," I spoke up, "let's get down to business."

The king's blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Bloom?" he asked in astonishment.

"Umm . . ." I droned on, tapping a manicured finger on my chin. "Sure. Let's go with that."

A look of pure outrage was immediately implanted on Diaspro's face. "Get out!" she ordered, jumping up to her high-heeled feet. "You aren't welcome here on Eraklyon! I thought we had that law passed?"

"It wasn't legalized because of its stupidity." the king said, clutching his arm rests. "You can't make someone illegal, you can only banish or forbid them."

She snapped her fingers and pointed at me. "Ha! Then I banish you from Eraklyon for eternity!"

"Could you specify who 'you' is? Some people could get confused with your mindless, senseless babbling of no specific person." I countered, examining my fingernails, bored.

Diaspro was about to explode again, but the king quickly put a hand over her mouth.

"Leave us." he said, not removing his gaze from me.

Her glare softened and reluctantly she left the room.

He stood up after she was completely gone and walked over to stand in front of me. Slowly, he reached his hand out and delicately ran his fingers through my hair.

"It's really you?" he asked quietly.

"Yup." I lied, eyeing his expensive Seal of Eraklyon ring he was wearing. "Is Diaspro really the queen?"

"No." he replied. "She came on her own. But you seriously have the nerve to come here and look me straight in the eye as if nothing ever happened?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? I never worry about the past." I answered, clueless to what he was referring to.

"Because if I remember correctly, you left me in an alley with your arms around your 'new fiance' while flicking me off."

_Go Mom,_ I thought, mentally smirking.

"Well, can you blame me?" I giggled, beaming at him. "I always did know how to make an excellent exit."

"And a dramatic entrance since I saw you teleport here with my _son_."

"Cut me some slack, Sky. The boy came to me -_ running_. Like a madman. I personally don't blame him either since you're obviously a psycho." I crossed my arms and set my weight to my left foot. "I can't understand why Mom ever kissed you."

Sky looked at me oddly. ". . . What?"

I just realized what I had done. Guilt spread over my face. I bit my lip nervously and fiddled with my bracelets. "Nothing . . ."

Right as Sky was about to speak again, the entrance doors burst open and in walked Aubrey and Liam.

"Oh dear crap," Liam murmured, putting his face in his hands.

"Well, well, well. I think I just won thirty bucks - which I will be expecting by midnight tonight, Liam. But anyway," Aubrey snapped into a ninja stance and unfurled her wings, "let the girl go or a boulder with crush your girlish head into the floor which is very pretty."

I rolled my eyes and merely walked over beside Liam. Aubrey smirked in victory.

"Aha, so you have decided to surrender." she said to Sky, nodding. "Good choice you blonde maggot." To add a special effect, she saluted him.

"Um, yo, Aubrey? He didn't give up." I told her, tapping her on the shoulder.

A fire lit up in the mutant's eyes. "OH. So you _do_want a fight? Alright then, bring it on bitch! I'll take you down with my pinky finger!"

"Aubrey!" Liam hissed, punching her arm.

"Ow! What?"

"Shut up!"

"No! I just fought a frickin' Shadow-" Aubrey began to say before Liam pressed her in the pressure point located on her neck. She stared at him in shock. Since she didn't have the same internal structure as us normal people, she didn't have the same pressure points as we did. Apparently Liam just found that out.

It wa deadly silent. A rush of fear coursed through me that was about ten times worse than last time.

"Oh . . . my gawd!" Aubrey exclaimed, slapping Liam's hand away. "Did you seriously just try to knock me out?"

". . . Maybe." Liam hesitantly responded.

"And you just said 'maybe' so that just adds on to your butt-load of reasons why I'm going to kick your ass. I mean, Alice isn't even that stupid! You should take a couple of notes from your girlfriend."

I shot her a death glare.

"Excuse me?"

We all turned to see Sky standing there, completely peeved.

"Oh, I forgot you were there." Aubrey spoke, sheepishly. She shrugged. "Oh well. My bad."

"Who is this Alice?" Sky asked Liam, angrily.

He sighed and put his arm around me. "_She_ is. This is my girlfriend and the reason why I've been sneaking out every night."

Sky shook his head. "No, _that's_ Bloom. Now stop joking around and tell me who Alice is."

"Holy shiz-niz!" Aubrey shouted. "I can't believe you!" she continued to shout at me.

"What?" I replied.

"You impersonated Bloom? Wow. You're dumber than I thought."

I furrowed my brow. "I am not dumb!"

"Au contraire, my mental friend."

"Liam, I need to speak with you - alone." Sky interrupted, motioning for his son.

My boyfriend sighed and walked over to him.

Before I could even blink though, guards fell from the ceiling all around us and launched themselves at us. They latched onto our arms, restraining only me and Aubrey. I thrashed wildly because the human contact burned my cuts and bruises, but mostly because the attack reminded me of when Darkar's minions has kidnapped me.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Liam asked in shock as he watched.

"Discovering the truth. If no one will tell me who this girl is then I have no choice but to find out myself."

"What about Aubrey? She didn't do anything . . . yet."

"Well it's obvious that she's in alliance with the redhead."

"Like Hell!" Aubrey exclaimed. "I don't know this chick! She's a complete stranger to me! I could have possibly seen her at the local Wal-Mart on Earth, but who _don't_ you see there?"

"Thanks for helping, Aubrey." I mumbled, shaking my head.

"You're welcome, girl-who-I've-never-seen-before-in-my-entire-life-except-maybe-at-Wal-Mart." She turned her attention to the guards holding her back. "Now let me go before I go and make you Eraklyon-ians . . . Eraklyon-ites . . . Eraklyon-whatever-you-all-here-are-called-_s _wish you were never born!"

"Good luck with that, Aubrey." Liam said.

"Shut up."

Liam shook his head and looked over at Sky. "Dad, I already told you who she is, so let them go." he told his father.

"I'm sorry Liam, but I don't believe you." his father replied.

"OH! BURN!" Aubrey laughed. "Father doesn't believe his own son - now _that_ is great."

"Aubrey, I'm trying to help you all so shut up!" Liam shouted.

"Well fine! Be that way!"

"Both of you need to shush up before I go and tear your throats out piece by tiny piece!" I threatened, stopping their constant feud.

Everyone was staring at me suddenly after I finished. The guards restraining me yelped and let go of me.

Closing my eyes, I felt my hands shake furiously and the air around me quickly heating up. My skin felt hot and my teeth were clenched as my anger built up rapidly over the seconds.

"Alice," Liam whispered, "I need you to calm down, can you do that for me?"

I didn't answer him. I _couldn't_ answer him. My power was taking control. No, correction: my power _had taken_ control. I wasn't in my own mind anymore.

"Uh-oh," Aubrey spoke nervously. "Fireball's about to explooode."

"No she's not." an all too-familiar voice spoke from behind me, emotionless.

Something hard crashed into the back of my head and I collapsed onto the floor. Pain was shooting through my skull as through my half-closed eyes I looked up to see who had hit me. My vision was blurry, but just by seeing the person's hair made my guess very correct.

My mom kneeled down next to me and gently reached her hand out to me, closing my eyes to where I officially lost consciousness.

* * *

_Yeah, I'm really really sorry. I knew that I said that I was gonna update a different story but I had a huge brainblast with this storyline and I had to put it up. I'm having some Writer's Block with my other stories at the moment, but I will be bringing some of the very old stories back up soon like the _**What Hurts the Most **_series, _**Bloom in Wonderland**, _um,_ **Hollywood Girl 2**_, _**The Random Adventures of Blue and Bloom**, _and some of the more recent ones like _**The End**, **End of All Hope**_, _**Desires**, _all that good stuff. Also, possibly some more poetry, I'm not sure. But, I dedicate this chapter to one of my bestest friends in the whole frickin' world and Magical Universe, Blue. She really likes this story since her OC Aubrey is in it, and so I'm half of my motivation for this story is now because of her support because she never EVER reads my stories all the way. Anyway, please review and hopefully I'll see you all later! Bye!_

_~Bloom_

_§ "Mwahaha, I just crapped in the Lego bin!" Destery from IDEK Things That Piss You Off_


	6. Hero

**Disclaimer: **_Right now, __I sadly do not own _Winx Club_ because if I did then I would have Sean Schemmel come back for the Nickelodeon 3rd season of the show instead of having Josh Keaton who played in the _Even Stevens Movie_ as the blonde dude that Christy Carlson Romano aka Ren thought was cute. But anyway . . . _

**Dedicated to: **Mego225

* * *

**Chapter 5- Hero**

A slow steady pounding pressed against the back of my skull as I slowly came to. Images and sounds from the previous events whirled through my mind at My eyes fluttered open groggily to see a blurry image of a girl with dark hair standing over me.

"Aubrey?" I mumbled, blinking rapidly to lessen the strength of the powerful lights above.

She scoffed. "You bitch," she snapped before slapping me across the face roughly. My headache increased tenfold.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, lightly holding my cold palm against my burning cheek. "What the jack was that for?"

"I can't believe you have to even ask!" Aubrey shouted in exasperation. "Remember what happened earlier with your anger issues? Yeah, you never yell at your leader in command while she is having a heated debate with the third in command!"

"Okay, number one - it was a fight, Aubrey. We've been through this. Number two - I am _not_ the third in command." Liam's voice spoke from somewhere across the room.

"No one asked you, you asshole! Now stay out of this!" She directed her attention back to me. "Now, you, pay attention when I'm yelling at you in an angry manner! Answer my question! Why did you interrupt our feud?"

"Y'all were pissing me off! You wouldn't frickin' shut up!" I explained, moving my hand up to my forehead.

"Like I _care_!" she shouted. "_I'm_ the leader; you listen to _me_!"

"You're not the leader!: Liam and I bursted.

"Denial is the first step to accepting a great leader!" She crossed her arms and nodded her head once. "Then there's acceptance." (A/N: Props to Blue for actually coming up with that little section!)

"Oh, give it a rest, Aubrey." Liam spat.

She rolled her eyes.

"Slowly I saw up and finally examined where I was. I was in an unfamiliar punk-ish room that had posters of Seether, Skillet, Anberlin, and other rock/metal bands with a _very_ familiar pair of black-and-white checkered Vans shoes in the corner beside the desk. Next to the Vans in a leather chair was Liam, with worried eyes.

"Aubrey, leave." he said, nodding towards the door.

"You can't tell me what to do." she countered, being stubborn.

He glared at her. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a fairly recognizable, sweet voice:

"Aubrey Lynn Wright!"

Aubrey's eyes widened. "Uh-oh." she said, biting her lip only once. "Gotta go!" She jumped off the bed and darted out of the room, yanking the door closed behind her.

When he was positive that she was gone, Liam stood up and walked over, kneeling down beside me. He took my hand in his and looked up at me.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." I shrugged. "I can't remember a lot, but . . ."

He sighed. "You were knocked out so that's not exactly surprising."

My eyes widened. "Aubrey flippin' knocked me out?" I inquired, ready to blow up in her face.

"No. Your mom did."

My muscles relaxed. I was stunned. I tilted my head to the side curiously.

"My . . . mom?" I repeated in barely a whisper.

He nodded.

I sniffed and put a hand to my chest. I closed my eyes and said, "I'm so proud."

Liam gave me an odd look. "Did Aubrey infect your brain with her infectious psycho disorder?"

I laughed. "No, I have my own psycho disorder. What I meant is that she got the strength to actually leave the house and whack me in the head with whatever she used."

He still looked at me strangely. "Um . . . okay then, I guess?"

"Liam she hasn't left that house in like two weeks. Why would she come out now?" I asked him.

"Maybe because you're her daughter." he replied.

I narrowed my eyes. "Besides that, dope head."

"Or possibly the reason is becuse you ran out after you heard what had happened." He took my hand in his and carefully stroked it with his thumb.

I bit my lip guiltily. "How bad was the reaction?" I inquired.

"Let's just say your mom officially created a higher level on the freak out meter."

"Oh . . ."

"You should probably go talk to her. And then get home. My dad hasn't exactly enjoyed seeing the Sparx twins today."

"Sparx twins?"

"You two basically are identical save for the eyes, so that's your apparent new nickname. Aubrey opted for "The Sparxian Bitches" but it was ruled out. She also suggested another one but I'm not sure if I should repeat it."

"Good idea."

"Come on, I'll take you downstairs. My dad and your mom have been going at it while you were unconscious, so it'll be good to have some possibly serenity around here."

He picked me up in his arms and carried me out of the room carefully so to not worsen my head injury.

"Why don't you carry me all the time?" I questioned, tightening my arms around Liam's neck as he headed down the stairs.

"Because if I did then you'd ask the opposite of that question: Why don't you let me walk all the time?"

"Like I give a damn!" I snapped. "This is the first time you've ever carried me anyway."

"You little liar!"

". . . Okay maybe you've carried me once or twice but oh well! I don't remember these things."

"So I've noticed." he said, stepping off the staircase.

I saw that we were in the throne room again. Nothing seemed different except for one thing. My mom and Liam's dad were standing there yelling at each other endlessly.

"When did you get a sister!" Sky yelled, angrily.

"She's not my effing sister, you idiotic buffoon! All I know is that her name is Alice, she looks a lot like me, she acts a lot like me, and I'm getting majorly pissed off at you right now!" Mom shouted.

"How can she _not_ be your sister?"

"Because even though we're related oddly enough it would be a little twisted if we were!"

"But you admit that you two are related?"

". . . No! Have you not been paying attention?"

"Wow," Liam whispered, setting me down on my feet, "your mom is seriously jacked up."

"Ha!" I replied, taking my arm in his. "Like your mom is any freakin' better."

"You don't even know my mother."

"Well if she's anything like Diaspro then she's about ten to twenty times worse than _my_ mother."

"Very true." he answered, nodding.

"I bet Sky's mother is a man. . ." Aubrey's voice echoed through the halls. We both looked around; she was nowhere to be found.

"I hate it when she does that." Liam said. "It's a little creepy."

"I find it awesome because I totally agree with that comment."

"It's not true. I know my grandparents."

"How do you know that your grandma ain't your grandpa and your grandpa is actually your grandma?" I inquired, curiously.

He stared at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly." I smiled, proud that I had successfully puzzle him. "Let's go babe, before I make your brain explode from confusion."

"You are a _dark_ little girl."

I giggled girlishly. "I know."

I pulled him towards the throne room where the two parents were still bickering and immediately wiped the smile off my face. When we stepped into the room, their eyes trained on us almost instantly.

"Howdy do," I greeted, using my free arm to give them a small wave.

"Alice, what the hell were you thinking?" my mother asked me, angrily.

"Well what the hell were _you_ thinking? You could've married _this_ dumbass, girlie boy." I snapped back. "No offense," I said to Liam.

"It's fine. I'm used to your snide comments about my father nowadays." he said back, moving his arm out of mine to bring it around my waist.

Suddenly the Party Boy song echoed in the room.

"What the. . .?" I spun around to look behind me. I spun back around, confused.

"HI!" Aubrey smiled and waved, two inches from my face. Scared crapless I screamed and fell back on my butt.

"Someone's clumsy," she said, laughing.

I looked up at her, glaring menacingly. "I wouldn't be so clumsy if _someone_ wouldn't cause me to be."

Aubrey gasped. "How dare you?" She moved her gaze over to Mom. "Are you going to let your daughter talk about the genetic-makeup you gave her like that?" she asked my mom curiously.

"Oh, wow." Liam said in shock. "I never knew that you knew what 'genetic-makeup' meant."

"Yeah," Aubrey replied laughing. "I watched Animal Planet a couple nights ago. They were showing gorillas make babies(A/N: Aubrey herself personally told me to put that in here.)."

"Ew!" I exclaimed in disgust. "Ew! Oh ew! That is grody Aubrey!"

She shrugged. "I'm just sayin'."

"Well don't say anymore! That's just . . . no."

"Um, guys, we sort of have bigger problems than Aubrey's disgusting mind." Liam interrupted.

"What could be bigger?" I asked in shock.

"Look around; what's missing?"

Doing what he said, I saw him, Mom, Sky, Aubrey, and myself -if I even count. Something seemed off.

"Who's missing?" I figured out, scanning the room.

That's when everyone began to take notice that I was right (well that _Liam_ was right, but that's not the point right now).

"Um, where's Isabelle?" Mom asked, still looking around.

"_That's_ who we're missing!" I exclaimed, snapping my fingers in conclusion. "I knew it!"

"No you didn't." Liam said.

"Shut up . . ." I mumbled, furrowing my brow.

"So, where is she?" Mom inquired, angrily.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"_You don't know_?"

"She was with Aubrey the last time I saw her!"

"Hey! Don't bring me in to this." Aubrey spoke up.

"Too late. You basically put yourself into this since you basically ditched me when you said you had never seen me before . . . except possibly at Wal-Mart." I snapped.

"Well it's true! You _do_ see everyone there."

"So Aubrey lost Isabelle?" Mom interrupted, ignoring our feud.

"Yup. All her." I assured.

Mom sent a death stare at Aubrey.

"You don't scare me," the mutant girl provoked, crossing her arms defiantly.

Mom didn't even budge. She didn't even blink.

Aubrey was silent for a few seconds. ". . . Okay if you keep doing that then I _will_ be scared."

"Good. You should be." my mom growled, narrowing her eyes at her. "I can't wait to tell your mother about this."

"Oh, please. Don't tell my mother." Aubrey said in a bored fashion as she picked at a hangnail.

Mom shrugged. "Alright," she said, walking towards the entry doors.

Aubrey's eyes widened. "You wouldn't really . . ."

Mom smirked and looked over her shoulder as she passed through the doors, saying, "Wanna bet?" Aubrey suddenly dashed after her begging her not to got to Flora and Helia.

"Where do you think Isabelle is?" Liam asked me.

"Well, if they were fighting You Know Who then she's probably with him. And since no one else knows but me and you, she needs a hero and I'm the only one who can stop him." I answered grimly. I stalked past Liam and his dad, not even saying where I was going and exited through the same doors Aubrey and Mom had just seconds before.

"Alice!" Liam shouted after me.

I ignored him. Why would I ignore my boyfriend, you ask? Oh, I don't know, probably because he'd more than likely convince me not to do what I planned on doing. Sure, it could get me killed; but what _wouldn't_ get me killed nowadays?

Without a care in the world, I stepped out into the royal gardens where Liam and I had appeared in only hours ago. Now, I would disappear here too. Creating a portal, I quickly jumped through it and immediately dissipated it behind me.

Cold air rushed past me, and I had to squint my eyes to see anything from the harsh wind. I looked around the dirt covered walls and then to the opening in front of me. Sunlight peeked in through the ceiling and brushed on the long dark upside down-looking castle in front of me. The castle was colored a deep red, almost the color of blood, and was attached to the ceiling of the cave as well.

Transforming into my Enchantix, I flew up to what I guessed was the entrance to the odd palace. Throwing a fireball, I made the double-doors collapse before me and that was it -there was no turning back now.

I had officially entered ShadowHaunt.

* * *

_I am so freaking sorry. I meant to post this chapter yesterday but I didn't have the time to because I was busy writing a short story for my social stuides class (don't ask) and it ended up being eleven pages long instead of the 3-5 pages thingy that short stories usually are. But moving on, I would like to apologize to _**Mego225**_for messaging her yesterday that I would post this yesterday, and since I was up till 11 o'clock at night finishing my Civil War slave story, I couldn't. So, Mego, I'm sorry, I was just really really busy. I'll try to update this as soon as I possibly can, because I have a list of when I'm going to update certain stories, so be looking forward to reappearances of those old ones that are covered in dust and cobwebs by now. Byee!_

_§ "Remembering is more painful than forgetting sometimes." said by Bloom in one of my upcoming stories. :D §_

_~Bloom_


	7. Impossible

**Chapter 6- Impossible**

Cautiously, I stepped inside the shadowy corridor, and tried to find any sign of a door that at least looked like an entrance to any sort of dungeon. But every hall I turned down only led to dead-ends and the occasional sleeping shadow monster. Each time one failed, I became more and more frustrated with the mission I had given myself. It seemed almost impossible to find this place.

After at least an hour of hunting for this place, I collapsed to my hands and knees and stared down at the ground with tears in my eyes. It was hopeless. I'd never be able to locate it in time. Unless I was already late, of course.

A shiver ran down my spine in fear. What if I _was_ late? Had I not been able to find where Isabelle was in time and Darkar already had . . .

I couldn't bear to even think of the fate my sister could have already been given. A few tears fell to the dirt floor as I thought of what life would be like if I had to lose my father _and_ my sister. If I was a wreck now, what would I be if that happened? Would I be worse? Dead?

"Daddy," I whispered, gazing at the spilled tears that glimmered in the light of the lit torches, "I need you."

The call for help was useless, and I knew it was. That paranormal junk where you call out for a lost, loved one and they somehow reach through the Beyond and help you, was only made for the movies. I thought since magic was real, the paranormal was at least a decent, good shot at trying. Oh how wrong was I?

A loud creaking noise emanated from directly in front of me and I jerked my head up to see a large wooden door there, ajar. The sight was odd because I knew it wasn't there before. Quickly, I stood up and walked towards the random entrance. Inside was pitch black to where it I held even a finger right in front of my eye, I wouldn't be able to see it at all. I squinted my eyes to see if it would help my sight any more, but unluckily it did not.

Once I was completely inside the room, the door slammed shut behind me. I spun around and reached for the door knob but the door had vanished -as if it were never there to begin with.

"Um, creepy much?" I muttered to myself, turning back towards my original position.

Laying my hand out, a small flame appeared in my palm and I threw it up into the air. The flame split itself into multiple, smaller flames and leapt into torches that lined the wet, stone walls, making the completely dark room have a little light. Dust and cobwebs covered mostly every inch of . . . well everything and I wrinkled my nose in disgust as I saw a spider slowly crawl across the floor.

The air was cold, and I -since I was still wearing my Enchantix- wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to keep warm. I took a deep breath and headed forward, reluctantly, looking around for any possible way out for this place wasn't particularly to my liking.

Walking down the small hallway on the damp floor, I noticed that the walls were being separated into square cell . . . doors. The thought shocked me that I had accidentally wound up in the dungeon. Maybe the paranormal stuff worked. (I highly doubted it.)

I grabbed hold onto the bars of one of the cells to look inside it but instantly regretted it. The only thing that greeted me were _very_ over-sized rats, and a rotting skeleton. I quickly backed away from it and hurried past it. I know it sounds weird, but one of my biggest fears is looking at real skeletons because it just reminds me that that's what we actually look like without skin covering us, which just majorly creeps me out.

Continuing down the hall, I glanced to my left and right still in search -even if I did repeatedly see more human bones and such. It seemed strange that the deeper I walked into the dungeon's depths, the colder it became which did _not_ help my short dress situation.

Looking to my left again, I saw a figure laying on the floor of the cell in a dark cloak, partially hidden in the shadows. I shook my head, knowing that it couldn't possibly be Isabelle. I knew that she would never wear a cloak in her life since she once told me that she wouldn't be caught dead wearing one.

But as I went forward, out of the corner of my eye I saw one thing from the figure that made me stop in my tracks.

Red-blonde hair.

"Isabelle!" I ran back to the cell and tore at its door wildly. My hands shook as I finally made sense of where the handle was and attempted to yank it. It wouldn't budge. I felt an immediate adrenaline rush surge through me and I stepped back, kicking the door open with my foot. I knew that I would definitely feel the pain that should've shot through me later, but the thought didn't matter at the moment as I went in and knelt behind my sister's form.

"Isabelle?" I said softly, looking where her head was covered in the shadows. "Isabelle, come on, it's me -your big sis. I came here to get you." I grabbed her shoulder and shook it. "Isabelle . . ."

I froze up, stopping my hand. This wasn't Isabelle, unless she suddenly became extremely buff within the few hours she had been here. I let go of the stranger and crawled back a few feet.

"Is?" I murmured, using my sister's nickname, hoping that what had just happened was a hallucination from being in the dark for so long.

The figure groaned and got up to its knees (well what I guessed was its knees, I wasn't sure). With its back to me, I slid back even further to where my backside was against the bars of the cell. In any other dilemma I would have been completely grossed out but right now, I personally didn't care. The person turned around, the hood of the cloak was facing toward me now. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, waiting for the stranger to attack me.

Nothing came to hurt me though. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes and I saw my own eyes reflect back at me. Inside the hood was a man with halfway-healed scrapes and cuts on his face and red-blonde hair with the same golden irises starting back at me. I reached out and untied the string that held the cloak together, tossing it away so I could really see who it was. When I did, he looked exactly the same from the last time I saw him.

And the last time I saw him was when he was murdered.

"Dad?" I whispered, focusing on his face. "Is it really you?"

With a trembling hand, the familiar man reached out and touched my cheek.

"Allison," he said in a low voice, as if it hurt. My eyes widened at the use of my full first name. The full first name that only my parents knew about.

"Oh my God, Daddy!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him in a tight hug. Tears fell down my face like waterfalls as I buried my face in his shoulder and cried. He returned the embrace and didn't speak a word.

I didn't want to let go but he pulled away from me and viewed me, looking at me up and down.

"You . . . got your Enchantix." he remarked, noticing my outfit. "You didn't even have your powers the last time I saw you."

I let out a laugh and pushed a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. "Yeah, I know. It's a really long story, but Dad we can talk about it later. We need to find Isabelle."

"Where is she?" he asked, alarmed.

"She's somewhere in Shadow Haunt. I came here to find her, but instead I found you." I grabbed his hand and stood up, trying to tug him up with me. I was unsuccessful. "Dad, come on, let's go."

He stood up, holding his abdomen and pulling himself to his feet with the support of the cell bars.

"Dad, what's wrong?" I inquired quietly, giving him a concerned look.

"I'm fine." he replied, hissing in pain.

"Dad, don't lie to me. What's wrong?"

He walked over to me, letting go of his mid-section and pinned me against barred wall. "De-transform." he ordered, never loosening his rough grip on my arms.

Scared from his sudden action, I did what he said and transformed back into my normal outfit.

He rolled his eyes. "Good God, Alice, are you serious? Couldn't you have worn something with sleeves?"

I gave him the look that Mom always used to give him when they were getting into an argument. "Well I'm sor-ry if I'm not dressed properly for the occasion of having to come down into a frickin' freezing cold dungeon to unexpectedly rescue my not-dead father. And the sudden task of having to go save my sister from Lord What's-his-face!"

He glared at me.

I sighed. "Fine, whatever." I zapped myself my black, double-breasted coat (you know the kind that reminds you of Edward Cullen's but is far more awesomer because _I'm_ wearing it) that I got for my birthday last year, and crossed my arms. "Happy now?"

"A little. Because now I don't have to hear you complain about how cold it is while we're trying to find your sister."

"I'm gonna complain just for the heck of it now."

"Let's just go." he said, lightly taking my arm and dragging me out of the cell, behind him.

The flames I had created in the torches were quickly losing their strength when I looked up at them. The corridor was getting darker by the minute as we tried to figure out which way to go that would lead us out of there.

"How are we going to find her?" I asked, worried.

"I'm not sure yet." He replied, quietly sighing. "But if we can get out of here then I might be able to devise a plan to find Isabelle and get us out of here in one piece. Do you remember how you got in here?"

"The entrance disappeared as soon as I stepped in here. It more than likely won't be there if we attempt to go back. I don't even know how I came across it anyway."

"Then let's just keep going forward." He let me lead the way as I continued walking in the direction I had previously been walking in only five minutes ago.

The deeper into the dungeon we went, the darker it became. The flames were shrinking quickly and I wasn't sure if I could light them again since I actually had no idea how I did that in the first place. Remember, I'm still a beginner at this stuff.

"It's like it's endless, almost." I murmured, squinting my eyes to try to see through the ever-growing darkness.

"Darkar probably has an illusion spell casted on it, making the tunnel seem longer." Dad answered.

A loud clang echoed from somewhere behind us, making me jump a foot in the air. We both turned around and listened, closely to try to hear if any other sound would follow after.

After pouring every ounce of focus into my ears, I could hear quiet, creaky footsteps walk across the stone floor toward us. Luckily they seemed to be very far away so we could possibly have the chance to get away from the person.

"Keep moving," Dad whispered, gently pushing me forward.

I followed his order, not giving it a second thought. Stepping on my tip-toes, I found I had more agility and speed, even if I was only fast-walking.

A feeling of relief was consuming me as the flames finally started flickering away. Moving in the darkness had the strong advantage of keeping us concealed from the stranger. But there was the disadvantage of me possibly running into every object in this place with my damn klutz gene. I made a mental note to thank Mom for that whenever we got back.

Suddenly the torches were re-lit at full blast, making any shadow be filled with unwanted light. I pivoted (as well as Dad) to see Darkar standing there, smirking maliciously.

"Did you really think you could sneak into my domain without my knowing?" Darkar asked, looking directly at me.

Not removing his menacing glare, Dad ushered me away. "Alice, run," he told me, not moving an inch.

"But Dad . . ." I said, feeling my heart tear itself into tiny pieces.

"Run!" he shouted, shooting me a look of secret panic.

The look scared me a little, but I reluctantly ran away from them. My Converse clad feet bounced off the stone as I dashed down the hall, panting from lack of breath. The adrenaline rush that I was hoping for unfortunately never came as I still ran.

I cursed under my breath as I came across a fork in the path. Trying to make a quick decision, I instinctively took a right, praying to God that it was the right choice.

For what felt like forever, I finally saw a wooden door that looked similar to the entryway down the hall. I exhaled in joy as I saw it, running a hand down my face from exhaustion. I wasn't sure how, by seeing the exit made me think of Dad. How was he doing going against Darkar? Was he locked back up in the cell? Did he win and was trying to find me as we speak?

_Keep moving_, I heard Dad's voice say in my head. I listened, knowing that he would keep his promise of being there. I slowed down my pace, walking forward instead of running. Oh how I wish I ran.

When I passed one of the pathways that broke off from the one I was presently walking in, a man's rough hand grabbed me by the arm, tugging me into the darkness. I tried to scream but the man covered my mouth with his other hand as he pulled me deeper into the pathway.

I tried biting his hand, but it didn't seem to affect him at all. He merely tossed me on the ground and put his foot on my stomach to keep me from getting up. I looked up at him and through the dark I could see that the man wasn't wearing a shirt and had long dark hair that was tied back into a long braid with demonic markings all over his face. The smirk that adorned his face showed the fangs that were there, instead of his teeth.

"Get off of me!" I yelled, failing at an attempt to pry his foot off of me.

"You know, Darkar told me that you would probably say that if I did this." The stranger said with an evil chuckle. "But in a way, I'm not technically on you, so I can't 'get off of you'."

I gave him an odd look. "Who the hell are you?"

"I am Avalon, well his dark half anyway," he replied, kneeling down beside me, using his hand to hold me down instead of his foot now. "I work alongside your uncle, and he told me to take care of you if I ever found you wandering around by giving you a 'message'."

"Well then, I'm listening." I growled, gritting my teeth.

"I can't exactly _tell_ you this message. In fact, telling you is out of the question. It is almost impossible." I felt a seed of discomfort plant in my stomach as he went and moved his hand to the top of my jeans.

I took the opportunity to kick him in the chest, making him fall onto his back. I scrambled to my feet and took off down the corridor, back into the hall where the exit door was. I reached the large door and began to search wildly for the handle.

I whined in fear as I continued to paw at the door, hopelessly. But I was tore away from it and thrown back onto the wall.

I saw Avalon standing over me, not looking pleased. "You want to play hard? Then let's play this hard." He said.

* * *

_Don't really have an Author's Note for this. Please review. :)_

_"Why do I always have to have a quote after these things?" said by Me :D_

_~Bloom_


	8. Much Like Falling

**Disclaimer: **_Right now, __I sadly do not own _Winx Club

**Dedicated to: **Isabelle, because she was the only one who originally noticed that she had gone missing. Sorry. My apologies.

* * *

**Chapter 7- Much Like Falling (Isabelle's POV)**

I grunted as I failed at removing my shackles once again. Jerking my wrists downward, they still didn't move an inch.

Frustrated by my attempts I gave up, slumping down in my original position. I was sitting on the smooth, stone floor of what I guessed was Darkar's 'throne room' with my wrists tied above my head in a magic-resistant metal.

There was nothing to do but wait for my demise as I sat there hopelessly. I knew that none of them would come. Mom was too stressed; Alice was just that –Alice. Most of my family wouldn't even notice if I was gone. I wasn't exactly an outspoken as everyone else.

The thought of being alone made me fill with dread. I sighed and shut my eyes, waiting for whatever was to be coming.

A loud scream filled the emptiness of the room and my eyes shot open in fear. I recognized the scream as none other than my sister. She was the only one I knew of that had the perfect horror-movie shriek of agony.

"Alice!" I yelled, struggling to get free.

A dark laugh sounded from the shadowy corridor that was in front of the room. My eyes narrowed as I saw Darkar enter with a smirk of success adorning his armored face.

"Don't worry," he said with a deep, throaty chuckle, "you won't have the same punishment as your sister. Yours will be quicker and you won't even be able to tell that you're about to die."

"Leave my sister alone!"

"That's my problem, you see. I can't just leave her be for she got herself tangled up in this mess on her own. That disgraceful little Mudblood (A/N: Haha, Harry Potter slang.) needs to learn her place -which is not to get in my way."

He stalked over and sat down in his throne.

"Well someone's being an ass crack," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

But almost instantly, I bit my lip, terrified as I continued to watch Darkar smirk evilly and hear my sister's screams what seemed like every one or two minutes. I was trembling; not sure what to do. I wasn't going to let Darkar see me break, but when you repeatedly hear the shrieks of the sister who protected you through thick and thin made it hard to hold it (or anything) back. So I just sat there, helpless, staring at the ground and nothing else, waiting for my demise.

The sound of footsteps rang in my ears and I slowly brought my head up. I saw a man walking out of the hall Darkar had previously entered from with a smirk on his face. The man looked about in his late twenties, but what drew my attention were the odd markings on his face. They were the color of blood.

"Avalon," Darkar said, interrupting my thoughts. My head jerked to him when he spoke. "You seem fairly satisfied with yourself. Did you take care of the problem?"

Avalon grinned demonically. "Yes, I did. She won't be going anywhere for a while, I imagine. If you want to go and have your turn with her then you can. I'm certain that she won't mind."

Darkar swiped his hand across the air in front of him and a knife appeared. He reached out and grabbed it, gazing at the object in admiration. When I squinted my eyes to get a better look at it myself, the knife immediately reminded me of something that would be conjured from Hell. And knowing Darkar, it probably was.

"You aren't planning on using magic?" Avalon inquired curiously.

"Magic is too quick, you can't savor it." Darkar replied, darkly. (A/N: If anyone can tell me what line that sentence is from, then the next chapter will be dedicated to them. Here's a hint, replace 'magic' with 'a gun'.)

"Well then don't let me stop you." He glanced over at me. "I'll watch this one while you 'attend' to the girl."

Darkar nodded and stood up, walking down the corridor with a sense of pride that was uncalled for. After he had left, Avalon walked over to me and knelt down as if he were inspecting me. I glared at him in return, hoping he'd get the message to back off.

"You know," he said, brushing a stray piece of red-blonde hair out of my eyes, "you look nothing like your sister."

"What did you do to her, you bastard?" I yelled, kicking him in the stomach.

He caught my ankle before I could come in contact with him.

"I'm not sure you want to know." he said, looking at my evilly. "But if you really want to know, then I could give you a demonstration."

"If you even try to touch me, you'll regret every second after it."

"Would you care to explain how you plan to do that if you're hands are bound?"

"You'd be amazed at what I can do with my hands tied up." I snapped.

He leaned in, getting an inch away from my face. "Then why don't you show me what you can do?" he said, bringing his hand up my side slowly.

"Oh, I'd be honored."

I tore my cuffed hands (along with the piece of the wall my hands were chained to) off of the wall and brought them down on his head. The piece of wall collided with the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

I stood up and looked down at him with a deathly glare. "When you wake up, don't dare say that you didn't deserve that you piece of crap."

I stepped forward, not knowing where to go. I didn't know where I even was, so how was I to get out of here? So I did something that I knew I was going to regret in the near future.

"What would Alice do?" I whispered, sighing. "Get these off first? Or go down the hall?"

I thought it over, trying to get into the mind of my twin. Sadly, the solution was quite obvious as to what she would do.

With the piece of wall still attached to my chains, I tip-toed down the hall, trying to find an exit. The shadows that consumed the way seemed threatening and evil as I walked. My heart rate quickened while only my feet had the courage to walk on.

I peeped my head down a turning passage and huffed in annoyance when I only saw a black, shadowy dead-end.

A hand suddenly covered my mouth and pulled me into the shadows of the passage, stifling my scream.

"Will you shut up?" a girl's voice hissed in a monotone, letting go of my mouth. "My God, I never knew you had that big of a mouth."

I adjusted my eyes in the darkness and finally saw my snatcher's face.

"Alice!" I whisper-yelled, wanting to hug her. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me. Are _you_ okay?" she asked, her voice still emotionless. She picked up my chained wrists and used her free hand to reach into her coat pocket. She withdrew a small black key, using that to unlock the chains on my hands.

"_I'm_ fine. Now where did you get that key?" I replied, wringing my newly freed wrists.

She didn't answer as she put the key back in her pocket and ran a hand through the messy bun she had her hair in.

"Follow me."

I didn't disobey her order as she strode into the darkness, not waiting up for me. I had to run to catch up with her for she refused to stop.

"Alice, slow down some!"

"Do I have to go and put tape over your mouth?" she shot at me, glaring at me through the blackness. "Seriously..."

I kept quiet until she finally stopped in her tracks. We had reached a small hole in the wall, only big enough to crawl through. She motioned to it, saying, "Get in."

I widened my eyes. "Excuse me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Get on your knees and crawl in the hole, Isabelle. You need to go first."

"Why?"

"Because I need to be behind you so I know that you'll be fine when you get out. Now go before I shove you in there."

Not wanting to push Alice's temper any more than needed, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled into the hole. It was a long tunnel with a pinprick of light peeping at the end of it. Hoping that the light was our way out, I willed my tired legs to crawl further towards the brightness.

It felt like an eternity before I finally reached the light. I crawled out of the hole and onto my feet. I was standing on the platform of the castle of ShadowHaunt -in the open air. My eyes took a while to re-adjust to the light, but when they did a rush of excitement rushed through me as I knew that I was finally out of the Hell hole.

I heard a tearful sniff and I turned around to see Alice there, sniffling and her eyes red. "He said he'd be here..." I heard her whisper. She stared at the ground and wiped a stray tear from her cheek.

My body froze as I saw a trail of blood fall down her hand when she put her arm down.

"Alice, you're bleeding." I said in a shaky tone.

She glanced down at her hand, immediately covering it up with her hand to hide it from me. "It's nothing."

"Alice, you are bleeding. I'm pretty sure it's not nothing."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh whatever, yes you do! You've been talking in a bland voice ever since you sort of 'kidnapped' me in a way, and now you're claiming that you're not bleeding. There's something wrong, Alice. Please, just tell me what it is."

"You don't need to know!" she shouted angrily. "It's my business and my business alone!"

She walked over to the edge of the platform and began to pace back and forth, distraught. "Where is he?" she kept muttering. "He said he'd be here..."

"He?"

She undid her bun and shook her hair out, letting it fall in tangles and knots down her back. "Dad. He said he'd be here."

I sighed. "Dad's gone, Alice. You need to give it a rest."

"He's not dead!" she screamed, stomping her foot. I jumped a foot in the air from her outburst. "He's never been dead! He's in there," she pointed back at the castle, "and _I_ need to go get him back!"

"Alice, you've gone mad!"

"No, I haven't! Why don't you believe me? He's been communicating with me in my head, I even saw him, we talked, it was him! I swear, Issy!"

I shook my head sadly. "Alice, honey, you need to calm down and think this over. There's no way that you could've seen him. You saw him die for God's sake."

She collapsed onto her knees and buried her face in her hands, bawling loudly. I wasn't sure what to do. It was as if she had gone into bipolar mode like she used to do when she was five. And she only did that then when she was hurt physically _and_ emotionally. I didn't know whether to go over and attempt to comfort her since she seemed like she would explode on anyone who tried to even speak to her.

"Alice, we need to go." I spoke, cautiously. "I'm pretty sure that we don't want to get caught and be taken back in there. But of course that's just my opinion."

She never answered. She just sat there, holding herself.

"It's okay," a man's voice said from behind me.

I pivoted to look behind me and I saw Liam standing there with Aubrey behind him. He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "I'll talk to her."

I nodded and watched silently as he walked over and knelt down beside her, rubbing her back and whispering in her ear. She brought her head up and looked at Liam before throwing her arms around him tightly.

"What happened?"

I looked over and saw Aubrey standing next to me, watching the couple as well.

I narrowed my eyes at her, pissed. "Don't talk to me."

"What? What did I do?" she asked in disbelief.

"Oh, like you don't know. You let Darkar kidnap me, ring any bells?"

"I'm sorry! I thought you were behind me when I went after Alice and Liam! I could've sworn you were!"

"Yeah, well you thought wrong." I said, walking towards the hugging pair on the ground. "Are you all ready?" I asked, trying to contain my previous temper.

He nodded, picking Alice up in his arms. "Born ready," he answered, kissing her forehead. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Sure you were. Let's just go. Mom's probably flipping out by now."

"Well I'm sure Dad's probably attempting to console her." he said with a laugh.

"Excuse me?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah, everyone's been on Eraklyon. Your mom and my dad have been talking about stuff. And now that both of her daughters _and_ her huband's gone, she's more than likely crying and my dad's trying to 'assist' as he calls it. I just hope to God that they don't get back together or else we're all screwed here."

Mom with Liam's dad? _Again_?

Suddenly everything felt much like falling.

* * *

_Well, I wasn't exactly planning on this one to be updated so fast, but I got the idea and I took advantage of the opportunity. Please review even if it is sorta short. (:_

_"When I said good morning, I was lying. I was truly thinking of, how I might quit waking up. He pointed out how selfish, it would be to kill myself. So I keep waking up." -Flyleaf, Much Like Falling :D_

_~Bloom_


	9. The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies

**Disclaimer: **_Right now, __I sadly do not own _Winx Club

**Dedicated to: **Isabelle, because she was the only one who originally noticed that she had gone missing. Sorry. My apologies.

And sorry for any grammar or spelling errors. Okay, back to the story!

* * *

Chapter 8 - A Kingdom Where Nobody Dies

Alice's POV

I stared intensely at the comforter of Liam's bed under me, pulling the sleeves of the sweatshirt he had let me borrow down further over my hands. I didn't know how long it had been since we had returned home, but when I finally got the nerve to open my eyes as Liam was carrying me I could see that it was sometime at night. While I saw that it was I felt a quick wave of relief hit me for I knew that I probably wasn't going to have to deal with Mom crying all over me when we got inside the palace since she more than likely was going to be fast asleep. And, as always, I was correct.

My forearm throbbed and I whimpered, gripping it as if it were enough to stop the pain. Of course, I knew it wasn't, but it was worth a shot, I guess.

"So, you finally decided to wake up?"

I jerked my head up to see Liam leaning against the door frame, as if he had been watching me. I didn't reply to him for I was afraid I'd go into another meltdown like earlier –which I did not want happening.

When he saw that I wasn't going to respond he walked over and sat down beside me, stroking my hair softly.

"You know," he sighed, "I put you in here so you would get some rest. It looked like the trip to Shadow Haunt really wore you out. But with the dark circles around your eyes I can see that you barely even blinked in the past few hours."

I continued to rub my forearm, trying to block his words that screamed the truth.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

Still, I did not speak.

"Alice, please don't do this again. If you revert to this I don't know what I'm going to do." He begged.

I bit my lip, feeling the guilt creep slowly over me. It wasn't like I didn't want to talk back; it was just that I couldn't find the words –as if my ability to speak had been forcefully torn out of me. Even if I did have my voice, I wouldn't know what to tell him.

He stopped stroking my hair to put his arm around my shoulders and pull me against him, "Alice, I am begging you, don't push me away."

The room was enveloped in silence. It was as if a dark shadow were bringing itself upon us, unwanted and evil.

It seemed as if Liam sensed the tense energy around us and he let go of me, making the cold feeling enter my body.

"I'll just leave you to your thoughts then." He muttered, walking to the door.

"I saw my dad," I whispered gravely. I was inwardly surprised that my lips had actually formed and spoke words, but the emotion was immediately suppressed.

Liam froze in his steps in the middle of the doorway and slowly turned back around to face me. "What?"

"My dad," I mumbled, moving my eyes up to see his shoes. "I saw my dad," I gulped loudly, "I talked to him.

He instantly rushed to my side and put a hand on my forehead. I shoved it away and looked at him as if he were mad. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I shouted in a raspy voice.

"I think you may be sick. There's no way you could've seen –let alone speak- to your dad." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Ali, your dad is dead. I know you don't particularly like to be reminded of it, but it's the truth."

"But, it's true! He was in Shadow Haunt." I sighed.

"Alice–."

"Liam, please you have to believe me!" I pleaded, choking on tears.

"You were probably just hallucinating or something. Alice, it's just not possible."

"But, it is! Darkar kidnapped him and locked him up there, I swear."

Liam sent me a sympathetic look as my loud breathing became the only noise in the room.

"Please," I whimpered. "You're the only one I have left."

He kissed my forehead and stood up again, going to the door. "I'll be right back, okay?" He didn't give me time to respond. He shut the door behind him immediately as he left the room.

When he was out of sight, I jumped up from the bed and headed towards the large window. I raised it up, being met by the cold, slight breeze of the night air. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that no one was coming in and transformed.

I looked down to see that my forearm was still bandaged –horribly of course since I did it myself. Gratefully, I sighed, and turned back towards the night sky.

Quietly, I flew out of the window zooming off to anywhere that wasn't the Eraklyon palace. My powers were drained from earlier today so I knew I couldn't go very far, which annoyed me. So, I ended up landing in an open field next to one of the few farmhouses on this planet.

When my feet hit the grassy ground I instantly de-transformed, merely watching my surroundings. I had to squint my eyes in the darkness to see, making sure that nothing dangerous was around. Well, nothing dangerous in sight, at least.

I pondered over the thought of what was going to happen now. They were going to put me in the looney bin for sure since I was definite that Liam had went to go tell Isabelle or Aubrey about my psycho story about my dad. I just prayed to God that he didn't bring it up when my mother was around. She was stressed out enough as it is with everything that's already happened lately.

But, I knew that they had a reasonable explanation. Even though we all had magic, hearing voices and seeing people who are supposed to be dead isn't considered to be a part of the 'normal circle'. In fact, it was far –very, _very _far– away from normality.

"Ali?"

I was jerked out of my thoughts by the girl's voice from in front of me. I rapidly blinked and tried to refocus my sight and saw Isabelle standing there, nervously.

"What do you want?" I asked, coldly. "Come to tell me that I still didn't see Dad?"

She sighed, obviously restraining herself. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't see what you saw; I didn't hear what you heard while we were separated. For all I know, you could've heard Johnny Depp singing "Friday" –even though I highly doubt that you did, because he's too bloody awesome to sing that piece of crap. But, getting back to the point, I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I believe you."

I let out a laugh. "No, you don't."

"Yes, I do, Alice. I believe that you saw him."

"Again, no you don't. No one believes me. They just think that I've lost my mind and I'm going through some after-shock of Dad's death, but I'm not. _I'm not crazy_!" I screamed, slumping down to my knees.

Isabelle was silent as I cried. Obviously she wasn't sure what to do. I mean, I wouldn't know what to do either if the situation were in reverse.

"I'm not crazy … I'm not crazy," I kept whispering through held back tears.

Slowly, Isabelle sat down in front of me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Alice, let's go home."

I shook my head. "I'm not going home. If I do, they'll just put me in some mental asylum and they'll never let me out. I'll be trapped forever."

"Alice, you do need help. But you're only refusing it. You can choose the kind of help you want, but you have to accept the fact that you need it. You, yourself, have to want it and all you have to do then is say so and we'll get you help. We're not going to put you in an asylum unless you think it fits best for your condition." She said, making me look her in the eye.

I took her words into consideration. At least, that's what I made her think I was doing. I didn't need help. I saw Dad, I spoke to him, and I touched him. There was no way that he could've been a figment of my imagination.

I sluggishly began to nod. "Alright," I muttered.

A surprised look came across her face. ". . . Alright?" she repeated, confused.

"I'll go home," I told her, standing up.

"You will? You'll really come home? Or, I mean, back to the palace?"

A sly smile appeared on my lips. "No, I'm going home."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"See you later, little sis." I said, waving bye to her.

Before she could reply, I transported myself away from the area. When I got to the place I transported to, I made sure to use a spell to make my trail undetectable.

Looking around, I noticed that nothing had really changed in the house –except that there was no furniture or anything like that. It was dark, making the moonlight shining through the large windows the only thing providing any source of light. I felt a little awkward standing in my previous home all by my lonesome self, but I knew that this was necessary. I needed to find some sort of peace and quiet that I couldn't find back on Eraklyon.

I walked over to the staircase and sat there on the very edge to where I could still see a lot of the front room from my peripheral vision. But instead of looking around, I sat there on the staircase just looking forward and nowhere else. What else was there to stare at? The whole house was empty and nothing would ever inhabit it again.

"I thought I'd find you here."

I glanced over my shoulder to see Stella standing there in one of the archways. Sighing, I returned to my original task of staring into nothing.

"You know, I almost didn't believe it. It didn't seem possible."

She finally caught my attention as she said that. Looking back at her again, I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Stella let out a small laugh and walked over, sitting down beside me on the stairs. "I almost didn't believe that your parents were together."

I gave out a single chuckle. "Who did?"

She smiled and ran a hand through her blonde hair. "I don't think anyone did until the story hit the press. Everything sort of went downhill from there with you all having to move to Earth and all." She bit her lip. "I only got to see them together once. I don't think I had ever seen her so happy in her entire life. Of course, I when I first did see them I was a little in shock. I mean, who wouldn't be in shock from seeing their best friend after she disappeared for years and suddenly reappearing on the street, kissing her used-to-be arch foe? But moving on, I wasn't sure whether to be happy for her or to be mad. She never told about anything whenever she returned to Alfea 15 years ago. She didn't say anything about you, Isabelle, or your father. Now that I know everything though, it's starting to make sense."

"You know, when your dad's death was announced, nothing seemed right. Everything just went wrong. Your mom went into the worst depression of her life, she lost the baby, she's almost lost you and Isabelle a dozen times, it's just chaotic." she continued, wiping a stray tear from her eye.

"Why are you telling me this?" I whispered, barely even moved by her speech.

"I usually wouldn't say this, but I don't want you telling Bloom about you seeing or talking to Baltor. She just doesn't need to hear it."

"But he could be alive! We can finally have dad back!"

"Alice, don't say anything to her! I'm not positive myself if I completely believe the fact that Baltor's alive, but if he is then we don't need to take that chance."

"What chance? The chance of us being a family again?"

"The chance that something new goes wrong." she answered, darkly. "If what you say is true and he is alive then Bloom is going to want to go after him. Then if we actually do find him and Darkar knows and he really kills him this time before we get there, what do you think is going to happen? It already looks like your mom is on the verge of suicide and if she saw that then what will occur? She'll actually take her life to be with him -because I know Bloom, and she would do that?"

I clenched my fists tightly, trying to fight back my rushing emotions. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel. Agony? Sorrow?

"Now do you understand why it needs to be kept quiet?" she asked, relaxing her previously tense voice.

I nodded with my breathing ragged and uneven.

"I didn't mean to upset you or anything, but if I did, I'm sorry. I really am. What should've taken only a few minutes spread into about fifteen." She put a hand on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be outside if you need me. I'll take you back to your family when you're ready."

Stella stood up and started towards the door, seeming a bit unsteady on her feet.

"Stella?" I spoke up, softly. For a second I wasn't sure if she actually heard me until she turned around.

"Yeah? Did you need something?"

I motioned for her to come back, nervously. Slowly, she did and knelt down in front of me. "Do you want to go home now?"

I shook my head. "I just needed to ask you something."

"Well, I'm listening," she shrugged, giving me a weak smile.

I paused, debating on whether or not I should just drop it or actually speak about what was on my mind. For the record, I was leaning towards my first option.

". . . Are you okay?"

Remembering that Stella was still waiting for a response, I merely shook my head again. "Never mind; I'm fine."

She gave me one of those 'no you're not' looks, but still asked, "You sure?"

I nodded, hoping she wouldn't see right through me.

She sighed, unsure. "Alright, but if one of us comes to find you and you've killed yourself, it's not my fault."

I let out a small laugh. "Sure it's not," I replied, playing with a piece of my hair.

"Precisely," she giggled before disappearing out the door.

Once she was gone, the immediate sense of relief that should've come never did. That uncomfortable wave seemed to only linger as I sat there on the staircase. Sadly, this also brought in the wave of doubt.

Thinking everything over, I wondered it maybe I _was_ wrong. What if Liam was right and I was just seeing things? I mean, I could've just been dreaming it while I was unconscious or something. It sounded logical. But that was just the problem; I was anything but normal despite contrary belief.

I slowly got up and walked over to one of the columns near the back of the room. It struck a memory but it was too fuzzy to remember. I lightly traced the crack that ran down the column's side, only remembering that it had been there for as long as we'd lived in this house. . . . Which was not that long, if my memory was correct.

I pressed my forehead against the cool stone and closed my eyes, trying to remember what I could. I regretted it as flashbacks of the past month came into view. But my breath caught in my throat as one particular memory entered that I had almost forgot about.

* * *

_Sliding down the banister with the little grace that I had, I hopped down onto the floor and adjusted my crop top as best as I could. Content with my horrible job, I walked through the foyer and looked around, trying to find something that could suffice the boredom that burned in me._

_I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going (obviously) as I inspected the area, but I knew that soon enough I would bump into something and finally stop walking. What I didn't expect though was it happening so soon._

_Almost instantly I ran into what I estimated to be a person instead of a thing. Taking a step back and looking up, I huffed and shook my head in disappointment._

_"Now Dad, what did I tell you about watching where you walk?" I reprimanded, smirking evilly at him._

_He mirrored my smirk. "I must correct you by saying: What did I tell _you_ about watching where you walk? I'm pretty sure I told you that normal people usual look forward when they are walking."_

_"Ha ha, very funny," I told him, crossing my arms. "So, where were you at? You're usually home earlier than this."_

_His smirk fell. "I'm pretty sure that where I am is none of your business."_

_"Yes, it is. I'm your daughter; I have a right to know why you're just coming home at nine-thirty in the morning."_

_Dad side-stepped me and kept walking in his original direction, ignoring my comment. The fact that he did this knowingly annoyed me, so I knew that I needed to attack the problem head-on. I was probably going to regret this later, but I felt like I had no choice._

_"You know, getting drunk off your ass and sleeping with random girls isn't going to change anything." I snapped, not knowing just how harsh the words had come out._

_I heard the sound of his footsteps suddenly come to a halt and the regret instantly kicked in._

_"Alice, you'll understand when–"_

_"When I'm older?" I inquired, turning on my heel to face him. He looked pained. "I'm fourteen, Dad; I'm pretty sure I can understand this situation just fine. Just because Mom died doesn't mean that you have to go into this weird, psychotic form of depression. It needs to stop, Dad."_

_"You don't understand, Alice. There will be a time where you will understand, but right now you can't." he replied, clenching his fists at his sides._

_"I don't see why not because I'm pretty sure I just summed everything up a few seconds ago. But I want an explanation as to why you do it. That's all that I want, Dad. If you just give me that answer I will finally drop it like you've wanted me to for the past couple of years."_

_A look of shock flashed across his face for a mere second, as if he didn't know that I had known about this for that long. After a short pause, he walked back over and knelt down in front of me, taking my hands in his._

_"Alice, I know that you understand what's going on. But to give you the details about all of this might be too overwhelming and to be honest, it could put you in some compromising positions. I want you to understand that I'm just trying to protect you, sweetheart." Dad said, staring down at me._

_"And I'm trying to protect _you_! Plus, what you're doing could put _you_ into some 'compromising positions'!" I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "Dad, I don't want to wake up one day and find that you're not here because I can't take care of Isabelle all by myself. We would most likely die if you weren't here to help us. I don't want to lose you to whatever battle you're fighting inside you right now, Dad." I got down on my knees and threw my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder so that he wouldn't see the tears. "I can't lose you to this; you're one of the few people I have left."_

_He returned the hug and ran his fingers through my hair in an attempt to calm me down. "You'll never lose me, darling. Not when I have you to protect me, right?"_

_I sniffled, but nodded anyway. "I'll protect you, Dad –no matter what."_

_"You promise?"_

_"I promise."_

* * *

I suddenly felt cold as the memory rushed past me. An empty feeling embraced me and it brought the tears to my eyes once more. Sinking to the ground, I banged my fists against the column as I let out a strangled cry of anguish.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered, closing my eyes to try and hold back the tears. "I'm so sorry."

The cold air that was in the room began to turn me numb, but I paid no attention as I sat there, crumpled up on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, Daddy!" I shouted in agony through the tears that streamed down my cheeks. "Daddy, please forgive me!" I hit the column again as hard as I possibly could, but I couldn't feel the pain. It was like I had become numb to the world because of the room's atmosphere.

As I kept repeating the same words over and over again, I tried to imagine a different place in my head. It was hard to think of an alternate universe while you're in despair, but one stood out to me the most –a kingdom where nobody dies.

It sounded appealing, but I knew it didn't exist. Because the only thing left that existed of the person I wanted back, would only torture me forever; reminding me of the promise I failed to keep.

Glancing down at the pool of tears that had formed, on the ground, my fit only grew worse as Dad's eyes stared back at me.

* * *

_Well, that was depressing now wasn't it? I was surprised that I actually got this done. *sing-song voice* Accomplisment~. But, anyway, I'm so sorry for the super long wait for a story update, but you see, I'm having a tough time. Freshmen year sucks. A lot of unexpected things are happening and I've been really emotional lately, so I haven't really had a lot of time to focus on this. SO, I have a few of my amazing friends helping me with my stories because I'm having a HUGE case of Writer's Block and I appreciate what they are doing with every fiber of my body because I just haven't figured a way to continue a lot of my stories, but hopefully they can help me with that. I think step one would be to figure out my brain -which I can't even understand. Eesh. But, to whoever is reading this and has actually been patiently waiting for me to update, I applaud you and thank you for sticking by me and/or the stories for this long. I have to go though, so please review and let's pray to whoever is up there that I update really really soon. Byee!_

_Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays,  
Bloom_


	10. Girlfriend

Chapter 9 -

"Are you okay?"

I looked up from my desk and glared at Isabelle who was starting down at me. "Does it honestly _look_ like I'm okay?"

She only shrugged, taking a step back. "I was just asking; chill out, sis."

I sighed, turning my gaze back to the book on the desktop. I didn't mean to snap at Isabelle, but lately I was almost incapable of containing my anger and my sister knew it. It seemed irrational that I was letting my fury get the best of me but I couldn't help it. Everything was ticking me off so obviously I'm going to be rather pissed.

It had been a few weeks since I had made my visit to the old house and with my luck; my life went downhill for the five-billionth time. After calming myself down and transporting myself back to the Eraklyon castle, I was pulled aside for some news that I definitely did not want to hear. According to my mom, the only place where she knew that Isabelle and I would be safe was the exact place that I would kill to avoid going: the prissy Alfea School for Fairies. It was the middle of the semester, but Mom just _had_ to pull some strings to get us in (damn her connections). But I think Headmistress Faragonda is even rethinking my admittance from all the hell I've raised over the past two weeks –in comparison to Isabelle who's been a freaking angel the entire time (goody-two-shoes). I don't get why she hasn't expelled me yet, because I'm pretty sure I've done things already that would get a girl kicked out.

"Alice," Isabelle said, tapping one of her manicured fingernails on my desk rapidly.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you saying something; because I blatantly wasn't paying a lick of attention."

She rolled her eyes and set her jaw in annoyance. "I asked you if you were coming back to the common room any time soon."

Flicking my eyes across the almost-empty library, I shook my head. "No, I'm just going to stay here for a while."

Something flashed in her blue eyes and she smiled. "Okay, good."

A furrowed my brow in confusion. "Why do you ask?"

She dug the toe of her sandal in the carpet and acted innocent. "Oh, no reason; I just wanted to know."

I opened my mouth to reply but she dashed off before I could produce a noise. My thoughts trailed off to what she was doing, but then I went back to focusing on my book that I didn't even remember the title of.

Finally paying attention to what I was reading, I groaned and slammed the book shut. It was another one of those god-forsaken spell books –again.

"What is this library's problem with only having useless spell books?" I said, sliding it down the table.

"I asked myself that question, too!" a girl's voice answered, sarcastically.

I looked behind me to see none other than Aubrey standing there, smirking with her arms crossed. I only stared at her, trying to anticipate her next move –a rare challenge.

"But you know what I figured out?" she asked, using some form of telekinesis to grab the book I had pushed away. Suddenly she swung the book at me, making a loud crack emanate from the collision it made with the back of my head. I yelped and she threw the book down on the ground. "It's because it's a freaking _library_!"

"No shit?" I told her, angrily.

She pouted. "Why did you yell at me?"

A blank look came over my face. ". . . You hit me with a book _and_ screamed at me, and you ask me why I yelled at you?"

"Hey, there is a major difference."

"And that would be what?"

"You used a nasty word, you dirty little girl."

My eyes narrowed at her. "Go jump in a ditch."

She faked offense. "That hurt me deeply." She whispered, falling down into the seat beside me.

"And I don't really care."

Aubrey regained her natural composure and small half-smile. "Come on, Alice; cheer up. It's not like this is a permanent thing."

"No, but it will be. Once Mom goes and finally calms down she'll fully enroll us here and my life will officially be over."

"Geez, you Debby-Downer," she muttered. "Who knows, maybe you'll even grow to like being here at Alfea."

I let out a harsh laugh. "Yeah, right; Faragonda already hates me –correction, _everyone_ here hates me."

"Well, you know if you were just a little bit nicer then maybe people would actually like you."

I threw an intense glare in her direction. "Says you; you don't even go to this school! You'd understand my pain if you had to suffer through all of their cheery happy crap. That reminds me, why _are_ you here?"

She shrugged carelessly. "I get bored on Earth; I can actually do what I couldn't do back home legally. It's much more fun."

"So it would seem," I sighed.

She slapped my shoulder and stood up, twirling a piece of dark hair around her finger. "Don't worry; I'm sure you'll accustom to everything soon enough, Ali."

I crossed my arms, tugging on the sleeve of my jacket. "Sure I will. _Not_."

"You know what? Screw this; you are too difficult." Aubrey sighed, turning around and stomping off, angrily.

I scoffed once she was out of sight. "_I'm_ difficult? Ha, that's funny."

Maybe, for once, Aubrey was right, though. Maybe I was difficult. I mean, I knew I was stubborn and all because of how much the teachers yelled at me for it, but someone would really give up on me for the sake of my defiance?

"Sweet," I whispered, smirking to myself and fixing the messy bun that my red hair was in, "that's certainly a huge success."

It seemed ridiculous that I would find this sort of thing as an accomplishment, but that was just how I was. I got the hellish mix of both of my parents' defiance, determination, and their stubborn-ness which one day would be the cause of a very bad situation. So, technically it's not my fault, but I couldn't deny the fact that I could control my actions so I was back where I started with my unnecessary subconscious speech.

After contemplating nothing, I laid my head down and closed my eyes. What else was I to do? I mean, I really didn't want to get up out of the chair even though it was unbearably uncomfortable. Plus, it was Monday afternoon and I had a ton of homework so I might as well just sit here and be as unproductive as possible.

Not five minutes after I closed my eyes, a loud groaning sound echoed through the library. I lifted my head up and looked around, seeing if anything looked out of the ordinary, but there was nothing there. I was alone in this particular section of the library. I shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it.

That is, until I heard the groaning again. It was louder this time; the echoes causing the floors to vibrate. I jumped to my feet and took off in the direction of the sound. After a few turns, I reached the main section of the library which resulted in immediate confusion.

Everyone was sitting around as if they hadn't heard it. Even Ms. Barbataea seemed to be unfazed as she sat at the head desk, going through what looked like important papers. It was like no one noticed it, which was impossible because if it was that obvious of a sound and _I_ heard it then everyone else must have, too. Still a little wary of the situation, I stood in place waiting for the groaning to start up again.

After ten minutes of standing there, I was suddenly knocked off my feet by a vibration that shook the whole area. I grabbed hold of one of the bookcases to keep myself up and stared in awe at the others. They were still acting as if nothing was going on; minding their own business like every other day.

The shaking subsided and the groaning came in its place. Annoyed with my present predicament, I ran towards the noise once more, ignoring the weird looks the others were giving me. I dashed through the maze-like formation of the bookcases, hoping that I could find it quickly and get out. Unfortunately, I kept hitting dead ends.

"Of course there would be dead ends in a library. Why would you think otherwise, Alice?" I said to myself, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

I rapidly turned more corners and when I reached another one, the groaning abruptly stopped. I froze and listened intently through the slight ringing in my ears. A minute seemed to pass when a small creak came from around the corner I was about to turn.

Cautiously, I walked over and took a peek at what was there. A large gateway made of gold stood there, blocking off a darkened section of the library. My curiosity senses instantly began to tingle intensely. The predicament reminded me of one of those horror movies where the lost girl finds the room where she dies.

"Hmm," I said, tapping a finger on my chin as I closely looked at the sign above the gate. "It says 'Restricted' but my mind screams 'Enter'."

I knew that I needed to just turn back and report what I had experienced to Faragonda, but then every other inch of me screamed to go towards the gate. I was almost shaking in frustration as I tried to figure out my decision.

"Gah! Damn you, ADHD!" I exclaimed, stomping over to the gate.

Looking up at the gate, I tried to figure out how to open it. There wasn't a handle or even a lock; therefore, it left me with absolutely no options whatsoever. Running a hand over one of the bars, I tried to see if a reaction would occur. But, as expected, there wasn't one.

Furrowing my brow, I took a step back and eyed it suspiciously. _How is this even supposed to work?_ Closing my eyes, I imagined the gate opening on its own, allowing me entrance. I felt a fire slowly rise inside of me, making my entire body tingle with power.

I opened one eye to see what damage I had done now, and a depression suddenly kicked in. The gate had only opened a few inches. I sighed, setting my jaw. "Works for me," I said, walking forward and grabbing the slightly ajar door and opening it up all the way.

Sticking my head inside, I took a look around trying to see if anything caught my interest. I was disappointed when all I found was darkness and more bookshelves.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," I sighed, about to leave the area.

Before I fully pulled my head back out, a loud crack sounded from the back of the room. I jumped into the room again just in time to see the remnants of sparks slowly falling down from the ceiling.

_Interest has been obtained once more!_ I shouted in my head. Silently, I made my way to where the light had been. It had been rather difficult navigating my way through the darkness, but I couldn't bring out a light since it would possibly jeopardize my whole mission (Being the genius I was, I left the gate wide open. And, yes, I know that I was deep within the library, but you just never know these day; especially with my luck.).

Tucked away beside one of the many shelves was a pedestal with what looked like a glowing book. Looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was following me, curiosity got the best of me _again_ and I quickly walked over to the book. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the name "Alice" engraved on the cover.

* * *

"Liam, open the freaking door!" I whisper-shouted, banging my fists lightly on the door repeatedly. Glancing out the window in the corridor that I was standing in, I saw the moon high up in the dark sky, reminding me that it was the middle of the night and I had to be quiet. The Eraklyon palace was oddly silent and seemingly empty, but I knew better than to trust appearances.

I took a step back when the door creaked open, revealing my sleepy boyfriend. His brown hair was more than a little disheveled and his expression didn't scream 'happy' through his squinted eyes.

"Alice, what the hell are you doing here?" he yawned, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. "Don't you ever sleep?"

"Look, I don't have a lot of time so just let me in –thank you," I rushed, quickly ducking under his arm and allowing myself entrance to his room.

"I thought you weren't allowed to leave Alfea grounds?" he sighed, shutting the door as he walked back to his bed.

"Oh, I'm not but I particularly couldn't care less," I told him, taking hold of his arm. Liam shrugged me off of him and collapsed onto the sheets as if in an attempt to fall back asleep, but I was determined to get his attention.

I leaped onto the bed beside him and sat there, staring at his lazy form. "I found something," I explained, sliding my backpack off of my shoulder. I unzipped it and began to root through its contents until I found what I had been searching for. "Take a look at this." I threw the book onto his chest and smirked as he groaned from the sudden impact.

He groggily sat up and inspected the book that was now in his hands. "You want me to look at a book that ironically has your name on it?"

I rolled my eyes and opened it for him. "Don't you see what it is?" I flipped to a page in the middle of the book and pointed to a specific section on the page. "What do you see when you look at it?"

He furrowed his brow and looked over the paper. "It's a blank glowing page. Can you tell me what this is all about, Alice?"

"This book is enchanted; it will tell the owner of the book anything that they ask it." I replied, hoping he would catch my drift.

He looked me in the eye, clueless.

I set my jaw and whacked him in the back of the head. "This book can tell me where Darkar is keeping my dad! We can go find him now!"

Silence spread through the room faster than I could imagine. Liam gave me a look that almost resembled pity and my heart instantly plummeted into my shoes. "You don't look happy."

"Alice," he said, running his fingers though my tangled hair. "I don't know how I can get it through to you –."

"Don't," I interrupted. My mood darkened as I predicted his next words. I had heard them multiple times already, but to hear them directly from Liam was an entirely different story. "Don't say what I know you're going to say."

"But it's the truth! You can't deny the facts, Alice!"

"I can when they're not facts!" I shouted back at him, storming out onto his balcony.

We were quiet for a few minutes before I heard Liam stand up and walk outside behind me. I felt his strong arms wrap around my mid-section and hold me against him as if I were a delicate feather.

"Alice, do you remember when we first met?" he said, resting his chin on top of my head.

I smiled, giggling at the memory from so long ago. "I called you an egotistical, ignorant, freaky, asshole that was the biggest accident your parents ever made. If I remember correctly, I then proceeded to present you with a black eye."

"And a kick to the crotch." He laughed, pulling me tighter to him.

I scrunched my forehead, tilting my head back to look at him. "You miss me kicking you in the crotch?"

"No; not that." He let go of me and made his way over to the edge of the balcony, leaning over it. His eyes were shining like they always did when he was pondering over something serious. "I miss the old you."

"What do you mean 'the old me'? Liam, I'm still Alice."

"No, you're not. Ever since the thing with your dad, you've been different. And before you interrupt me –which I can tell that you're about to do—you can't say that you haven't. A few months ago, you were happy and you joked around all the time. But, now, you're obsessed with 'finding' your dad and you've been pushing everyone away. You even pushed Isabelle away; your own sister."

I didn't want to listen to him. I didn't want to believe that what he had just said was true. Despite my effort, the nagging voice in the back of my head kept reminding me that Liam was right. I hadn't even looked at all the possibilities of the situation –Darkar could've spelled me into thinking I saw him, or I was hallucinating from being exposed to too much dark energy. Thinking it over, I realized the point that Liam was really trying to get across. It wasn't that my dad was never coming back. No, it was a completely different reason.

"You think I'm pushing you away?" I managed to say through the lump that was forming in my throat.

Liam jerked his head towards me and ran a hand through his messy hair. He opened his mouth but closed it, stopping whatever was about to come out of his mouth.

I brought my gaze up to the sky in an attempt to diminish the tears that were welling up in my eyes. Nevertheless, I felt a cool tear slowly make its way down my cheek. Hoping he didn't notice, I quickly wiped it off my face when he glanced down at the floor.

"Is that really how you feel?" I questioned, already knowing the answer.

When he didn't reply, I felt an icy feeling crawl up my spine. Feeling my heart crack a little more, I walked back into his room and grabbed the book off of the bed, shoving it into my bag. The tears were flowing freely now; frankly, I didn't care anymore.

"Alice, what are you doing?" Liam said, following me inside.

"Well, since _that's_ how you feel, I won't trouble you with my 'push-people-away' self." I snapped in a cold voice, tossing the bag onto my shoulder and heading towards the door. "I'm staying at Aubrey's so don't bother coming after me."

"You're just going to walk out of the castle?"

"That's obviously what I'm doing, Liam."

"What if the guards catch you, or worse, my dad?"

"I'm not your girlfriend anymore so he won't have to worry." I reassured him before slamming the door behind me.

* * *

**Here you go, Liz. I finished it just for you and Stuie. **  
**Anyway, this is obviously a more serious chapter, but do not worry; Aubrey will be making a bigger appearance in the next chapter (that will be interesting). And it is officially the start of my summer break! WHOO! I've said multiple times that I should be updating more quickly and I pray that this time it will be true. But I have my sister graduating and all that fancy-schmancy stuff so I can't make any real promises for the next week or so … maybe.**  
**But, I'm tired, so I'm going to leave this page before I go mad.**

**~Bloom**


	11. Oceans

CHAPTER 10

Aubrey was the first person I saw when the front door opened. "Ah, shit, it's you," she said, rolling her eyes when she saw me. "Go away." She attempted to shut the door but I stuck my foot in the doorway just in time to catch it.

A mix of shock and fury engulfed her face and she jerked her head up to glare at me. It didn't take a second for the look to vanish as she saw the dried tear stains on my cheeks.

"Have you been crying?" she asked, opening the door again, curiously.

I only nodded, afraid that I would fall into another mental breakdown if I spoke.

Aubrey let out a loud groan before letting the door slam into the adjacent wall. "I guess you can come in."

I followed her inside, wincing as I heard the smack of the door shutting. Aubrey plopped down on the couch and gave me a blank stare. "So, who is it this time? Is it that one mail guy? Because if it is, it's okay –he makes me sad too. But, I mean, if you're partially blind being a mail person should obviously not be your profession."

"No, it's not the blind mailman, you idiot!" I shouted, sitting down beside her and breaking my quiet bubble.

She raised an eyebrow and let her jaw drop a little out of confusion. "Then who is it? Wait, you didn't trip on air again during one of those agility tests at Alfea, did you? Dammit, you're a fairy, Alice; you have wings! How do you trip on air when you have wings? We've been over this a thousand times!"

"It's Liam," I interrupted her, my voice changing into a monotone. "We broke up."

For once in her life, Aubrey was silent. She instantly pulled me into a hug – very out of character for her, but given the circumstances, I didn't make a stupid comment. This was exactly what I needed right now, though I'd never dare admit it out loud.

We sat there in silence – another Aubrey rarity – for what felt like hours, before she finally spoke up in a tiny voice. "Uh, am I allowed to ask why, or is it still a tender subject?"

I pulled myself out of the hug and looked down at the floor. "He wouldn't believe me."

"What do you mean?"

I slid the backpack off my shoulder for the second time that night and placed it on Aubrey's lap. She gave me an odd look before opening it and taking the book out.

"I can ask that book anything I want and it'll give me the answer to it. I've asked it where my dad was and it gave me a map to Shadow Haunt where he's being held." I explained, hoping at least my friend would believe me.

She opened the book and carelessly fingered the blank pages. "Um, not to rain on your parade or anything Al, but you do realize that there is absolutely nothing on these pages, right? There's not even eraser marks or stains. Are you sure it's not a journal?"

I huffed and ripped the book out of her hands. "It's a magic book, Aubrey. Since it has my name on it, it means that it responds to me and only me. Therefore, when I touch it and ask it a question, it will give me and only me an answer."

She seemed to look as if she were thinking over what I had just said, refilling me with hope. I knew that no one else believed me (at this point, I didn't even care about their opinions), but if Aubrey didn't even believe in my words, I had no idea what else to do. I would've lost everyone.

"Okay, so what you're saying is that the book you're holding can—"

"Aubrey, are you still up?"

We jerked our heads toward the staircase and saw Aubrey's mother standing there. She didn't look like her normal peppy self, but instead very tired and frustrated –or, in other words, the complete opposite of the Flora that I had known growing up.

"Well, I'm not asleep, am I?" my friend asked her.

"Then get upstairs, Aubrey. For Magix's sake, how many times do I have to drill that into your head?" Flora told her, ignoring her daughter's snarky remark as she fixed her rumpled pajama top.

"Hey, I'm in the middle of an in-depth conversation here. I have a better idea! How about _you_ go back to bed and _I'll_ stay down here until I'm done talking. I like this plan; what a fabulous plan."

Flora squinted her tired eyes at Aubrey before shaking her head. "I am so not in the mood for this, right now. Just go to bed." She muttered, before walking back up the stairs and rolling her eyes.

After she was out of sight Aubrey choked out a tiny laugh. "Yeah, like _I'm_ going to bed."

"Yeah, but I think she's too tired to really think anything through right now." I added. "Now, as you were saying?"

She shook her head. "Never mind what I was saying. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to be even more confused if I ask it."

"No, go ahead."

"I am not going to ask it, so shut up!" Aubrey groaned. "So, what exactly is it you're wanting?"

"I want a search party to go look for and help my father."

"Good luck with that. Next?"

I huffed but continued anyway, "I sort of need your help to get the proof that I need to show that he's not dead."

She stared at me blankly for a few minutes before tapping a finger on her nose (one of the multiple signs that she was in deep thought). "Okay, so, let me make this clear. Stop me if I'm wrong." She said. "You came to my house in the middle of the night to cry for five minutes about breaking up with your boyfriend. Then, not two seconds later, you act like you're totally over it and bring up this book like we're in fucking Once Upon a Time that can supposedly tell you where your supposedly-dead dad is. And now, after you've shown me this book, you want me to help you follow the instructions that I can't even see to prove that you're right about this?"

I blinked a few times, processing what she had rambled off. After hearing someone else say it, I could probably understand why they would turn it down. It was downright crazy.

I nodded, confirming her words.

"Alrighty then!"

My brow shot up to my hairline. "Alright?"

"Yeah, why not? It's not like I have anything else to do besides listen to Mom complain about my 'attitude.'" She leapt to her feet, and put her hands on her hips. "So, where does this book thing say that we have to start?"

* * *

"I believe this has won the award for Most Stupid Idea Ever."

I rolled my eyes, holding the large ball of fire higher. I was starting to regret telling Aubrey about the book from the moment we had arrived at this cemetery.

"I mean, seriously Alice, we're roaming an unguarded, criminal graveyard in the middle of the night alone. How is this a good idea in the slightest?"

"For the billionth time, I am proving a point!" I snapped. My wings shook slightly in annoyance.

Aubrey scoffed. "Well, can we prove your point, oh, I don't know, in the _daylight_?"

"The guards come out in the daylight!"

"Oh, yeah, because that's smart; _Hey guys, how about we go and leave the criminal graveyard totally unprotected at night when it's most likely to have criminals escape_!"

"All of the criminals here are dead, Aubrey. Hence the term _cemetery_," I reminded her, jumping over a fallen grave marker.

"Then why the hell are we here?" she shouted, ruffling her wings.

A small noise caught my attention and I raised my hand to silence her. I looked over towards the wooded area surrounding us.

She stopped in her tracks, giving me a wild look. "What do you see?"

"Shut up," I hissed, squinting my eyes at the darkness.

If there was one thing in the world that I could label as scary, it most definitely would not be cemeteries. I had oddly enough never found them to be when I was younger (can't say the same for Aubrey). I found the silence and dark atmosphere to be rather serene. The horror movies that I had seen from Earth had totally blown their concept out of proportion with their stereotypical foggy grounds and distant wolf howls. I mean, yes, there was fog and such but it wasn't as over the top.

Holding my arm out, I took a few steps towards the woods. I tried to make the ball of fire grow in size but with my focus intently locked on whatever was in the woods, its size didn't budge. The sound of rustling leaves and snapping twigs reached my ears; Aubrey's face contorting in fear.

She screamed as a creature leapt out from behind the trees, latching herself onto my arm. I shoved her off of me and knelt down, shining the light from the fire on the animal.

"It's a rabbit, Aubrey." I picked up the rabbit and handed it to her. "Why don't you go pee yourself a bit more over its terrifying front?"

"Alright, time to go," Aubrey said, beginning to turn around.

I caught her shoulder and spun her back, effortlessly.

"Come on, Alice!" She bent down to let the rabbit loose before crossing her arms at me. "Admit it; this is just weird –even for us!"

"You promised you would help me," I told her.

"That was before you said we were hunting for dead people!"

I gave her a hard look, hoping that my watery eyes would signal to her that she struck a wound.

"Okay, I'm sorry," she replied. "I'm just trying to prepare you for what may come if you end up being wrong."

"I won't be wrong." I protested before walking away. I could hear her mutter something then run to meet up with me.

"Well, he's not here. Oh well, maybe next time." Aubrey nervously chuckled.

"Will you chill out, Bree; we haven't even reached the mausoleum yet!"

"Mausoleum?" she shouted. Her eyes were wide with fear. "What the shit? Have you lost your mind?"

"Since when are you afraid of a little corpse container?"

"Maybe since I found out that we're searching for a corpse container!"

I clenched my fist, restraining myself from slugging her in the arm. "Come on, we're almost there, anyway."

"How can you tell?"

For a split second, I was grateful that she hadn't noticed my quick reaction to change the subject.

"My dad's supposed burial consisted of locking him in a small, aboveground mausoleum. After the Ministry put the casket in, they covered the building with a butt-load of protection barriers and spells created by the Minister of Magix, himself, so that no one can get in or out."

"But Baltor's escaped the Omega Dimension," Aubrey said, confused. "Does the Ministry really think that a few powerful spells will keep him in there if he decided to rise from the dead?"

"That's why they specifically went to Earth for a quick supply of Holy Water." I answered. "It was probably their most brilliant idea."

"Brilliant, how? What is Holy Water supposed to do to a powerful wizard? Get him wet?"

I stopped and turned to face Aubrey. With the glow of the fireball casting shadows on her face, it easily revealed just how freaked she was.

"Because in the bible on Earth, it's considered a sin to rise from the dead," I explained.

"And that is important because . . .?" she asked.

"Holy Water is used to not only kill risen bodies, but souls, too –permanently erasing you from history; unable to ever return."

"Oh … well that's not morbid at all."

I pivoted away from her, returning my attention to the search. I focused my energy on the shields, attempting to find at least their general direction. After a few minutes, I felt my energy reflect off of an unknown force. Immediately, I extinguished my fireball and took off towards it. I heard Aubrey screaming my name but I ignored it. My focus was stuck on my reflected power and what could have bounced it back.

Dodging gravestones, tree roots, and dirt mounds should be made a sport from all the energy it took to do it. By the time I started to fumble, I could feel a dull ache in my head and legs. But, by luck, I found the source of my reflection right in front of me.

I collapsed onto my hands and knees, trying to catch my breath when Aubrey landed on the ground beside me, gracefully descending from the sky. She stared oddly at my panting form. "Why were you running when you have wings?"

Thinking over her statement, I sent a glare at her. I had no logical reply for her, so I had to pull something out of my butt –like always. "_Don't_ question my logic, Aubrey." I gasped.

She smirked at me, curling her feathery wings to her back. "You forgot that you were transformed, didn't you?"

"No, now help me up!"

She rolled her eyes and grabbed my wrist, pulling me up onto my feet. I dusted flecks of dirt off of my sparkly skirt and panned my eyes across the woods in front of me. The forest didn't look like much, but, of course, what forest did?

I began to stalk towards it when Aubrey instantly took hold of my arm. "Oh, hell no." she said, shaking her head.

"Give me a break, Aubrey! Seriously," I shouted. "It's just a forest; how bad could it be?"

"_How dare you jinx us like that?! Do you not remember how crappy our luck is?" _

"Who doesn't remember that? But we shouldn't let it keep us from doing what we came here to do!"

"Yes, it should!"

I jerked my arm out of her grasp. "Look, you can follow me if you want. You don't have to. But I can see that you obviously have serious doubts, or I'm mistaking it as you just not wanting to be here with me. I can't choose what you think. Either way, I'm going into that forest to get the proof I need."

Producing another fireball in my hand, I resumed my plan to walk towards the trees. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw her only standing there, watching me leave. My heart stung with betrayal, yet I continued on.

Finally, when I was concealed by the shadows of the trees, I leapt into the air and flew deeper in. The cold breeze caressed my face, drying my eyes of the tears from the speed that I was flying at. I tried to not let Aubrey's actions drive me away from my present goal, but I couldn't help but feel the ache from losing the last person I called family.

I tried not to imagine what she would do when she returned to Linphea. Would she go and tell someone what I was doing? No, that wasn't Aubrey's style. In all reality, she most likely would just go home and go to sleep or stay up watching that Earth show _Adventure Time _until she finally passed out.

About ten minutes into my journey exploring the depths of the woods, I halted in midair. Realization instantly struck me when a certain thought crossed my mind: I had no idea what I was looking for.

When I was explaining to Aubrey the amount of barriers and such on the mausoleum, I hadn't taken into consideration that there could be cloaking spells. I could've easily passed it and not even known it.

Minimizing my fireball a bit, I tried to focus my energy on the mausoleum again. Quickly I experienced a dull pain, emanating from my head. With my free hand, I placed it on my forehead in an attempt to ebb the throbbing. My brow furrowed in concentration and the throbbing instantly increased. Releasing my engagement, I was surprised to see the pain disappear in a flash.

I snorted and enhanced my orb once more. The ministry was smarter than I had anticipated. Not only had they set protection barriers, but they had also fixed up a magic block.

"Well played, Minister. Well played," I said to myself. "You're not as dumb as you seem."

A branch snapped behind me and I turned around. I was greeted by nothing but darkness and what little of the trees that were illuminated by my fire. I raised an eyebrow in suspicion, though I still returned to my original position.

My wings fluttered anxiously; furthermore, I sped forward into the darkness. My heart pounded in my chest from the thought of something possibly being in the forest with me that wasn't a harmless little animal.

The wind was suddenly knocked out of me as I collided with a form of force field. I fell to the ground with a hard thud, knowing that I was going to _definitely_ feel the presently absent pain later.

I stood up, wobbling a bit on my feet, before staring at what I had hit. I raised an eyebrow at the empty space that lay in my vision. Compared to every other inch of the forest it was simply normal. Unconvinced at what I was seeing, I reached out in front of me. Sure enough, I came to meet an invisible wall.

Sensing the strength of the barrier, I sighed. The Ministry had decided to combine the shields at the last minute in an attempt to make it even stronger. Shaking my head at their naivety, I lightly tapped my palm on it. The barrier shattered on contact and I strolled past the debris that now cluttered the ground.

The mausoleum was surprisingly extravagant, one of the best I had seen, but I knew it was only for the safety precautions that came with it. What a pity to know that those didn't work very well.

I struggled as I pried the door open. Delicate cobwebs were torn apart, slowly falling to the ground which was carelessly covered in a thin layer of dust. It was dark in the tomb, almost like an abyss. My flame barely gave off any light, but there was just enough to help let me see where I was walking. The stone floor was cold –much like the air—and wet. Luckily, with the protection spell that came with the Enchantix transformation, my sandals didn't become water-logged.

Exploring the barren room, I came across a torch-like object on the wall. Using it to my advantage, I instantly lit it. It created a chain reaction as more and more of them magically appeared on the walls, coming to life. It drew my attention to the ceiling. I was curious to see just how tall it looked on the inside, but the desire quickly died. Spouts lined the crevice where the ceiling met the top of the wall. Drops of what I assumed to be holy water silently dripped from them, splashing to the ground every so often.

"Well, I can see why the barriers were weak enough to let me in," I whispered. "It's a death trap in here." I shivered at the thought.

Suddenly, the air turned to ice and frantically looking around, my attention was drawn to a curtain. The curtain was dark and, dare I say, simple. I expected more from the Ministry since getting inside the mausoleum was a pain in itself. Gathering up my courage, I approached it.

Deftly, I drew the curtain back to see what was there. Inside laid a dusty, gray room. The only source of light was from the barred vent that led to the outside. In the center of the tiny room sat a stone casket, encased in ice. All of the air seemed to freeze in my chest as I stared.

Gulping, I walked towards it. I ran my fingers over the icy surface, shivering at its severe temperature. I engulfed my hand in a ball of pure fire, shocked at how at much light instantly filled the room. Fisting my hand, I slammed my fiery hand onto the ice, shattering it. Vapor slowly ascended from the coffin before disappearing into dark air. I paid little attention to it, returning my attention to the object in front of me.

Forgetting that I could easily lift the lid with a levitation spell, my adrenaline rush took over, allowing me to push the lid off without any trouble. I didn't close my eyes, scared of what I would see. I was too determined to worry about disappointment.

A sigh of relief flooded through me the instant my eyes panned the empty casket.

"Well, that was a long trip for nothing," I said. I ran my finger along the odd carving in the bottom of casket, wondering why someone would carve the number twelve in there.

Pivoting on my heel, my eyes widened when my foot made a splash after it landed on the floor. Looking down, I saw the floor was glistening with water. Cursing under my breath, I made a mad dash towards the exit, shallow water drenching my ankles as I ran.

Just as I reached the open door, it slammed shut. I reached down for the latch identical to the one on the other side, but came to find none. Composing balls of fire in my hands, I repeatedly hurled them at the door, hoping to break it. When the smoke cleared, the door appeared to have taken absolutely no damage.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I yelled, stomping my foot.

Fuming, I made my way to the center of the room, needing as much space as I could get. The water was rising fast from the spouts practically tossing the ocean into the room and this spell was my only hope.

"_Transp-!"_

A loud splash resonated from behind me. I spun to see a body rise out of the now waist-deep water. Sadly, it was the last person I wanted to be trapped with.

* * *

_Happy New Year to all of you lovely people!_

_Wow, this took a lot longer to update than it needed to (which is very sad to say). I had planned to have a whole little one-shot getup posted, but I happened to get the flu and was passed out on the couch the entire week of Christmas and I couldn't do anything. It was not fun. In fact, it was hell._

_But, moving on, I'm also going to say that I will be on a personal hiatus from Fan Fiction for a bit in order to get my personal life straightened out. It has just been getting out of hand and crazy and I don't want it to effect my writing, so until then you won't be seeing a lot of me. Unless it's like some random thing; however, that's my official leave._

_Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a very good 2013!_

_~Bloom_


End file.
